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Posts Tagged ‘Kingston Trio’

Died On This Date (August 2, 1975) Chan Daniels / The Highwaymen

Posted by themusicsover on August 2, 2010

Chan Daniels
January 1, 1940 – August 2, 1975

Chan Daniels at far right

Chan Daniels at far right

Chan Daniels was an original member of ’60s folk group, The Highwaymen who scored a couple of hits with “Michael,” and “Cotton Fields.”  Formed in 1958, The Highwaymen were very popular along the college folk circuit due, in part, to their political songs.  More pop-leaning and less confrontational than Bob Dylan or Phil Ochs, the Highwaymen found their audience alongside the likes of the Kingston Trio and New Christy Minstrals.  The group disbanded in 1964 as Daniels, Bob Burnett and Steve Butts opted to go to grad school.  They reunited on occasion in later years.  Chan Daniels passed away on August 2, 1975.



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Died On This Date (March 22, 1991) Dave Guard / The Kingston Trio

Posted by themusicsover on March 22, 2010

Donald “Dave” Guard
November 19, 1934 – March 22, 1991

dave-guardDave Guard was an influential American folk singer, best remembered as a founding member of the Kingston Trio.  Formed in 1957, the group helped launch the folk revival of the ’60s while becoming one of the first groups to enjoy big sales on the LP format.  Their first hit single, “Tom Dooley” is considered one of the most important songs of the era.  Artists like Brian Wilson, Joan Baez, Lindsey Buckingham, Jimmy Buffet, and Tim Buckley have all been cited as having been influenced by the Kingston Trio.  Guard left the group in 1961 and formed the Whiskeyhill Singers who released one album and sang a handful of songs on the soundtrack for How The West Was One.  After the Whiskeyhill Singers, Guard kept busy working with other artists while writing and recording music.  He all but retired from the public eye during the final two decades of his life, making only a few local public appearances and Kingston Trio semi-reunions.  On March 22, 1991, Dave Guard died of lymphoma.  He was 56 years old.

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The Kingston Trio

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Died On This Date (November 27, 2009) Bess Lomax Hawes / Folk Musician & Folklorist

Posted by themusicsover on November 27, 2009

Bess Lomax Hawes
January 21, 1921 – November 27, 2009

Bess Lomax Hawes was a folk musician, educator and folklorist.  As the daughter and sister of noted folk historians, John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, Hawes was never far from the American folk music that she would eventually build her life around.  After graduating from college during the ’40s, Dawes moved to New York City where she immersed herself in the thriving folk scene.  She became a guitarist and singer for the politically charged Almanac Singers, a folk group that included Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and future husband, Butch Hawes.  During WWII, Hawes worked as a radio programmer for the United States Office of War Information.  During the ’50s, she moved to the Los Angeles area where she continued to play local clubs and began teaching at a college that would later become California State University, Northridge.  In later years, Hawes worked for the Smithsonian Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts.  As a songwriter, her most famous song was 1948’s “M.T.A.,” co-written with Jacqueline Steiner.  It later became a hit for the Kingston Trio.   Bess Lomax Hawes was 88 when she died following a stroke on November 27, 2009.



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Died On This Date (October 1, 2008) Nick Reynolds / The Kingston Trio

Posted by themusicsover on October 1, 2009

Nick Reynolds
July 27, 1933 – October 1, 2008

nickreynoldsNick Reynolds was a founding member of the Kingston Trio, one of the premier groups of the ’60s folk revival.  Formed in northern California in the late ’50s, the group were a direct descendant of the Weavers, but thanks in part to their youthfulness, they were able to bring folk music further into the mainstream.  Their harmonies would, in turn, heavily influence such groups as the Beach Boys in years to come.  The Kingston Trio won two Grammy’s during the early part of their career.  The group broke up in 1967 as harder rock music started becoming more popular with American kids, so Reynolds took some time off from music to enjoy his other love, auto racing.    He made a name for himself driving formula B and C cars along the Northwest circuit.  He reunited with the Kingston Trio in the early ’80s and played with them on and off until his retirement in 1998.  Nick Reynolds was 75 when he died of respiratory disease on October 1, 2008.

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Died On This Date (September 19, 1973) Gram Parsons / Country Rock Pioneer

Posted by themusicsover on September 19, 2009

Gram Parsons (Born Cecil Connor)
November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973

Gram Parsons was a highly influential singer-songwriter who helped launch what would later be called country rock and then alt-country or Americana.  Parsons began playing the guitar as a teenager to escape a less than ideal home life.  The first group he played with, the Shilohs, were a folk band in the tradition of the Kingston Trio.  When the band broke up, he and other Boston area folk musicians formed the International Submarine Band with whom he began to develop a sound the borrowed the best from country, folk and rock.  They enjoyed moderate success, primarily getting airplay on the up-and-coming progressive radio stations.   In 1968, Parsons was asked to join the Byrds as a replacement for David Crosby and Michael Clarke.  He started on keyboards but soon switched to guitar, helping guide the group down a more country rock path.  Parsons left the Byrds in the summer of 1968.  He joined back up with the Byrds’ Chris Hillman soon after to form the Flying Burrito Brothers whose debut,  The Gilded Palace of Sin would be a direct influence on the likes of the Eagles, Dwight Yoakam and later, Wilco and Ryan Adams.  By the early ’70s, Parsons was working as a solo artist while recording and performing with good friend, Emmylou Harris.  It was during this period that Parsons’ inner demons were taking control in the form of substance abuse.  He was also spending more and more time in an area he had become fond of, Joshua Tree National Monument in the desert outside of Los Angeles.  He liked to go there and take LSD while searching for UFOs.  It was during one of these trips that Gram Parsons apparently overdosed on morphine and alcohol and died at the age of 26.

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Gram Parsons

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