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“The 1960s were big for traditional folk music, and The Kingston Trio was among the most favored. They were the ones who kick started a movement. The music was fresh and alive. College kids loved it and their parents did, too.” – George Grove, of Grove’s “Dictionary of Music and Musicians.”
The group helped to launch the folk revival of the 1960s and continued to thrive despite the emergence of rock and roll.
The Trio was formed in 1957 in the Palo Alto area. The original group consisted of three young men just out of college – Dave Guard (1934–1991), Bob Shane (1934–2020), and Nick Reynolds (1933–2008).
They started out playing Hawaiian music at parties, but soon evolved into the traditional folk genre.
Greatly influenced by The Weavers, the calypso sounds of Harry Belafonte, and other semi-popular folk artists such as the Gateway Singers and the Tarriers, the trio was discovered by Frank Werber, a local publicist at the Hungry I, playing at a college club called the Cracked Pot. He became their manager and secured them a deal with Capitol Records.
The trio was dismissed by “serious” folk musicians, but their commercial success paved the way for record-industry and audience acceptance of folk performers such as Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan.
Their big break came in 1958 with their #1 hit “Tom Dooley,” which turned the group into national stars.
With a repertoire that drew on traditional folk material but eschewed the left-wing sympathies typical of many American folk performers in the first half of the 20th century, the group conveyed the lighthearted optimism of mainstream Americans at the onset of the 1960s.
“M.T.A.”, often called “The MTA Song”, is a 1949 song by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes. The song’s lyrics tell an absurd tale of a man named Charlie trapped on Boston’s subway system, which was then known as the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The song was originally recorded as a mayoral campaign song for Progressive Party candidate Walter A. O’Brien. A version of the song with the candidate’s name changed became a 1959 hit for The Kingston Trio.
The song has become so entrenched in Boston lore that the Boston-area transit authority named its electronic card-based fare collection system the “Charlie Card” as a tribute to this song.
Other popular songs by the Trio included Reverend Mr. Black, A Worried Man, Greenback Dollar, and more. One of their most popular songs, which never climbed the charts, was Scotch and Soda.
A revised version of the group toured in recent years, made up of new members. No doubt audiences enjoy the memories brought about by the new faces.
The group received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, which solidified their rightful place among their peers.
The original group members have all passed on, but for a brief period, they rode a fresh wave of cultural influence that is forever etched in the annals of American culture.
Everything else is just history...
‘The end of an era’: After 36 years in Palo Alto, Il Fornaio prepares to closeJanuary 13, 2026 2:05 pm
