The Associated Press
Bob Shane, the last surviving original member of the popular folk
group the Kingston Trio and the lead singer on its million-selling
ballad "Tom Dooley" and many other hits, has died.
Shane died Sunday at a hospice in Phoenix, Arizona at age 85. Mike
Marvin, a cousin and surrogate son of fellow Kingston Trio founder Nick
Reynolds confirmed the death but did not immediately know the cause of
death.
Shane, Reynolds and Dave Guard were performers in the San Francisco
club circuit in the 1950s and broke through nationally in 1958 with
their eponymous debut album, which featured "Tom Dooley," an old
standard inspired by a Confederate veteran's conviction for murder. The
song reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts, won a Grammy for best
country and western song (no folk category existed) and helped launch
the so-called folk revival, with other artists including Joan Baez;
Peter, Paul and Mary; and, eventually, Bob Dylan.
Clean cut and amiable, they were criticized by some folk artists for being too slick and for avoiding political
statements. But the Kingston Trio was one of the country's top acts
over the next few years. Five Kingston Trio albums topped the Billboard
charts, with favourite songs including "Where Have All the Flowers
Gone?," "500 Miles," "It Was a Very Good Year," later recorded by Frank
Sinatra, and "Sloop John B," later a Beach Boys hit.
Their success continued even after Guard left in 1961, and was
replaced by John Stewart. But by the mid-1960s, the Beatles had arrived,
Dylan was playing rock music and the folk market was in decline. The
Trio broke up in 1967, although Shane continued to tour and record with
various incarnations of the group over the following decades. He retired
from performing in 2004 after suffering a heart attack.
Guard, whom Shane had known since both were attending high school in
Shane's native Hawaii, died in 1991. Reynolds and Stewart, who went on
to write the Monkees' "Daydream Believer" and other hits, died in 2008.
The Kingston Trio received an honorary Grammy in 2011.
"Their music was a balm to the growing angst of a generation that was
soon to turn our country and our world upside down," Peter Yarrow of
Peter, Paul and Mary wrote of them in 2014. "They tossed off renditions
of song gems that felt effortless yet genuine, cool yet caring,
sympathetic yet ‘no big ting.’"
Shane was married twice, most recently to Bobbi Childress, and had five children.