In all truth, this thread has probably the kindest words for the Kingston Trio that I have ever read here. I am quite surprised that this many people has this much nice to say about the trio.

I can understand Deckman's situation in that there was lots of folk music being performed before the Kingston Trio broke on the scene. It would have been annoying to have the audience suddenly swing to a different listening style. Bob, someone else once said here that an audience member told him he wasn't performing Tom Dooley correctly because that wasn't how the Kingston Trio did it. (dispite the fact that he had been performing the song for several years before their recording) I guess the Kingston Trio is kind of like Walmart, slick, commercial, and generally screwing up the small businesses.

As Jerry knows, I have a warm place in my heart for the Kingston Trio, as my group performs predominately Kingston Trio genre music to great audiences who, like us, are probably not as deep in folk music as this forum.

I can see Martin's point, there should be some acknowledgement of the makeup of the group, but I imagine the audience will be wowed by the performance one way or another. I guess the listening audience is influenced by the original recordings of the performers, and are pretty forgiving in live performance. Nostalgia is probably a pair of earmuffs for the average audience member, right or wrong.