Did He Ever Return? Mike Marvin and The Kingston Trio

Mike Marvin’s early exposure to The Kingston Trio came when he was invited to be a part of Nick Reynolds’ family as a teenager. Reynolds, who with Bob Shane and Dave Guard co-founded the legendary folk act, became Marvin’s musical mentor and showed the youngster how the trio picked songs, conducted rehearsals, managed their tours and much more while Marvin helped out with backstage support. 

Marvin was around the band during its late ‘50s/early ‘60s heyday, when The Kingston Trio was among the groups that sparked the folk music revival and turned the genre into a commercial commodity, with the band placing four LPs among the 10 top-selling albums for five consecutive weeks back in late 1959. During that era, The Kingston Trio scored dozens of hits including “(Charlie on the) M.T.A.,” “Scotch and Soda,” “Hard, Ain’t It Hard,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “Five Hundred Miles,” and the game-changing “Tom Dooley,” which hit No. 1 and won the trio a Grammy. Their success helped to pave the way for the signings of such future icons as Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary.

“I was always there,” Marvin recalled. “I watched the rehearsals and helped out backstage. And I’m the one who answered the phone when President Kennedy called because he wanted the trio to perform at the White House.” 

But despite such proximity, and the desire, Marvin never got to be an actual member, even as the personnel changed over the years with several lineups, including two or three that outlasted the original trio in longevity. 

Until the mid-2010s.

That’s when Shane, who had finally retired for good following a heart attack 10 years earlier but still owned the rights to The Kingston Trio brand, asked Marvin to step in and take the reins to the group, choosing him over the then-touring trio that featured four-decade veteran George Grove and Rick Dougherty. (After departing the Trio, Grove and Dougherty teamed up with the Rubicon Theatre’s James O’Neil to co-create and direct the Lonesome Traveler series of musical revues, the latest of which premiered earlier this summer.) 

Marvin was surprised and grateful, but not entirely shocked. 

“Nick had shown me how the band was constructed and how to put together a great show, but I’d already gone to work back in 1969 when Bob retired the first time,” Marvin recalled. “I always thought that someday I would have a chance again. I didn’t think it would take this long.”

Marvin said Shane selected him even though his musical skills and dexterity with the repertoire weren’t up to Grove’s at the time. “George was the obvious choice for him to hand off to, but he told me, they’re really good, but you have the spirit, and The Kingston Trio was always all about the fun. It was about the presentation of the songs as a really fun, overwhelmingly pleasant, and sometimes hilarious evening of entertainment. I knew how to do that.” 

Marvin enlisted Tim Gorelangton, his former folksinger touring partner back in the late ‘60s, and contemporary Buddy Woodward to round out the current version of The Kingston Trio, who will make their Santa Barbara debut at the Lobero Theatre on August 12 as part of the current Keep The Music Playing tour. Marvin said the Trio will perform more than a dozen of the best-known songs as well as some deep catalog cuts and some newer material, although originals are still in the future. 

“We stick to the original arrangements and vocal harmonies, but we’re not impressionists,” he said. “We do the best we can as ourselves and bring that fun spirit, because our audience comes to see a Kingston Trio concert the same way people go to a Dodger game no matter who’s wearing the uniform.”