Get out the banjos and tune those guitars: The Kingston Trio is coming to Corning. While not the original three members who started the group in 1957, musicians Mike Marvin, Tim Gorelangton and Buddy Woodward play the hits that made the group famous.
The Kingston Trio may have helped launch the folk revival of the 1950s, but didn’t initially see themselves as a folk band.
“Bob (Shane) told for years on stage the apocryphal story about how they consider themselves all round entertainers,” said current trio member Buddy Woodward. “And then after ‘Tom Dooley’ hit, the record executives came to them with a big suitcase full of money and said ‘Here, you’re folk singers,’ and he said ‘Yeah’.”
Along with “Tom Dooley”, the trio’s hit songs include “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “500 Miles” and “M.T.A.”
Woodward says the performance is reminiscent of how the group performed back in the 50’s and 60’s.
“What we do is we kind of strip it back to what it was like in the early days,” said Woodward. “That includes using a single mic stand that we have, that we choreograph ourselves around. Switching places and depending on who's singing lead and things like that. It's really the experience like seeing the show in the old days.”
The Kingston Trio performs at the Corning Museum of Glass on June 7th at 7:30pm.
Watch Bill Snyder’s full interview with Buddy Woodward below:
