A new incarnation of The Kingston Trio comes to Hutchinson

Hutchinson is about to have the opportunity to experience a timeless band, as The Kingston Trio makes its way to Kansas for the ‘Keep the Music Playing’ national tour.

The Kingston Trio will bring folk music to Hutchinson on Oct. 29 at the Fox Theatre.

Mike Marvin, Tim Gorelangton, Buddy Woodward and Jake Faulkner make up the third incarnation of The Kingston Trio. The original band began in San Francisco in 1957. The founding members are Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds. Everything that The Kingston Trio is today has derived from the original hit songs, such as, “Tom Dooley” and, “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?”

All three current members have links to and experience with the original group. Mike is the adopted son of founding member Nick Reynolds, who was also his musical mentor. Gorelangton is one of the few musicians outside the Trio who has recorded with Nick Reynolds, and Woodward has performed with longtime Kingston Trio member George Grove.

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The original Trio released 19 albums that made Billboard’s Top 100, 14 of which ranked in the top 10, and five of which hit the number one spot. Four of the group’s LPs charted among the 10 top-selling albums for five weeks in November and December 1959, a record unmatched for more than 50 years, and the group still ranks in the all-time lists of many of Billboard’s cumulative charts, including those for most weeks with a number one album, most total weeks charting an album, most number one albums, most consecutive number one albums, and most top ten albums.

The Kingston Trio is like an heirloom that the founders have passed down to a couple of generations of new band members as the legacy continues on.

“Bob Shane actually reached out to me in 2014 about taking over the group. I’ve known them all throughout my entire life,” said Mike Marvin, who does guitar and vocals for the band. “I was pretty much a part of The Kingston Trio since I was 13 years old.”

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With the music having started many years ago, the band is very excited to see younger generations showing up to their shows with their families.

“We have teenagers come up to us with their guitars wanting them autographed, and they tell us that we are the reason they started playing the guitar,” Marvin said. “You can hear a pin drop between songs, and then we’ll have 3,000 people singing with us in the audience.”

Marvin referenced many times how fun this band is. The greatest goal of the band is that everyone has a good time. To help ensure that this happens, a major part of this tour is the “pay it forward” mission.

Because of the generosity of the venues, The Trio has been paying its venues to perform throughout the duration of this tour in hopes to repay the venues for hardships experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The audience can expect an absolute, first-rate representation of The Kingston Trio. It’s fun, it's compelling, it’s poignant and can be really funny at times,” Marvin said. “They will never have seen a musical show put on quite like this.”

Marvin said band members feel a sense of “levitation” when a show is going well, explaining that energy surges from the crowd and fills the venue with joy as fans experience a renaissance in folk music.

“You can feel it, the audience can feel it and they project it back onto us,” said Marvin.

The band ensures their guests that they will not be disappointed. After the band’s visit to Hutchinson, they are off to Washington, Hawaii and Alaska to wrap up the remainder of this ‘Keep the Music Playing’ national tour.

This article originally appeared on The Hutchinson News: A new incarnation of The Kingston Trio comes to Hutchinson