1 - It would've been nice if Nick Bob Dave & John wore striped shirts for nostalgic reasons.
2 - Nick/Bob/Dave sang only 3 songs? That's all we get after how many years of their break-up? Two decades? My gosh!
3 - Nick/Bob/John also sang only 3 songs since the KT official break-up in 1967.
4 - By golly, there should have been lots of songs by the NBD & NBJ Trio after all these years!
5 - Unnecessary guests: Tom Smothers & Mary Travers & Lee Buckingham. John Stewart's solo "Can't Go Back To Kansas" sung with those female singers added some spark.
6 - Fair enough, Bob Shane was anxious to promote his current Kingston Trio with George Grove & Roger Gambill, I get that. But no matter how talented George & Roger might be,
they became members of the KT by default. Nick, Dave & John were gone! Bob could've introduced George & Roger towards the end of the show and perhaps sing a new song ----
"Looking For The Sunshine" and/or "Hawaiian Nights" for example.
All for now. I feel my blood pressure going up! :>(
Previous Message
I remember seeing an interview on PBS before the broadcast with Dave and Bob both sitting on stools and Bob looked uncomfortable and unhappy while Dave seemed ok. Previous Message
With regards to The Kingston Trio Reunion, I wish I could give you some inside information about John Stewart and "Chilly Winds", but unfortunately don't have an answer for you.
But once we're on the topic of that Reunion show, there were some problems behind the scenes involving Bob Shane and Dave Guard. I heard about it from Allan Shaw of Rediscover Music
(Folk Era Records). During rehearsals, Bob walked out, slammed the door, and left in a huff. Thankfully, he returned.
Dave Guard snapped at him and said "Bob where did you go? We need you here!" Bob Shane snarled at Dave and said:
"Yeah and don't you ever forget it you son of a bitch."
(direct quote by Allan Shaw given to me via phone call)
Personally, I was disappointed in The Kingston Trio & Friends Reunion Show. No disrespect to George Grove or Roger Gambill. I understand Bob Shane wanting to promote his current Kingston Trio at the time;
but KT fans wanted to see the real deal; Bob Shane singing a lot more songs together with Nick Reynolds and Dave Guard and John Stewart.
Those were the KT albums on Capitol Records (and Decca) we listened to back then and sorry to say, I felt gypped. Previous Message
I am about 42 years late in registering this comment, but here goes just the same. I watch the video of 1981 Kingston Trio Reunion telecast several times a year, enjoyably for the most part, but I always find it hard to watch some pieces of it, particularly the NBJ re-creation of one of my all-time favorite songs in the collective KT repertoire, "Chilly Winds."
Given the importance of the event and its meaning to Trio fans from all over the world, I've never understood why John Stewart (for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration) chose to play a guitar that is clearly not up to par. His iconic opening solo is is simply painful to hear because the strings are buzzing horribly on the fretboard, and do so for the remainder of the song. To me, it is comparable to someone showing up at a wedding or memorial wearing swimming trunks and flip-flops. It is almost as though Bob Shane called him up that day and said, "Hey John, if you are not too busy, how would you like to join us tonight for a reunion show? Grab a couple of instruments and meet us at Magic Mountain." As a guitarist, I can't imagine willingly playing an instrument in such a condition at a clearly important event, and would have thought those involved in the production would have done something about it...which would not have been that hard to do (borrow George or Roger's guitar, for example).
I am sure I am in a very small minority in voicing this criticism, and realize also that it probably was hard for Bob to pull everyone together and find rehearsal time for the reunion show. If someone knows the inside story about how they put this program together, I'd welcome their insight. I otherwise love and remain deeply indebted to the Kingston Trio (the Guard and Stewart years especially) for inspiring me to learn to play and perform, which I've been doing continuously since 1964.
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on 8/11/2023, 3:18 pm, in reply to "