CAPITOL COLLECTORS S

The Kingston Trio includes: Dave Guard, Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, John Stewart. Additional personnel: Dave "Buck" Wheat, Dean Reilly (bass); Glen Campbell (banjo, background vocals on "Desert Pete"). This album is dedicated to David "Buck" Wheat and Voyle Gilmore. It includes extensive liner notes by Robin Callot and Paul Surratt. Tracks 1, 2, 3 and 12 are AAD as well as in mono. Probably the best single-disc anthology of the Kingston Trio's most commercially and artistically successful period--the four-disc THE CAPITOL YEARS box set is more thorough, but its length makes it a bit daunting for newcomers and casual fans--the 20-track CAPITOL COLLECTORS SERIES set shows off the genial pop-folkers to their best advantage. The Kingston Trio, while enormously commercially successful, never quite had the street cred in hardcore folk circles that a Pete Seeger, a Bob Dylan or even a Joan Baez enjoyed. In fact, many in folk circles thought the Kingston Trio were commercial sell-outs bastardizing the form. Viewed in a less harshly judgmental light, it's clear that while the Kingston Trio's records were cut with a larger and more mainstream audience in mind, the quality of most of the material is unimpeachable. Perhaps the definitive version of the oft-sung traditional ballad "Tom Dooley" was their trademark tune, but the comic Boston subway rant "M.T.A." and the anthemic "Greenback Dollar" are equally fine, and the trio's takes on material like "Worried Man Blues" and Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" are more than competent.