http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/02/AR200...

Nick Reynolds; Kingston Trio Lead Singer

By Adam Bernstein, Washington Post Staff Writer

Nick Reynolds, 75, a founding member and lead singer of the Kingston Trio,
one of the most popular of the American folk revival groups in the 1950s and
1960s, died October 1 [2008] at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego
[California]. He had acute respiratory disease.

The Kingston Trio, formed by three California college students in the
mid-1950s, became known for upbeat three-part harmonies and a wholesome look
that attracted a mass audience. They won two Grammy Awards, sold millions of
records and, at their peak, about 1960, outsold Frank Sinatra.

The Kingston Trio included Mr. Reynolds, Bob Shane and Dave Guard, who was
replaced by John Stewart in 1961. The group released more than two dozen
recordings before disbanding in 1967 amid the rising British rock invasion.
Fourteen of their albums made the top 10 list on pop charts, and they had
many prominent television and stage engagements, including the 1959 Newport
[Rhode Island and Providence Plantations] Folk Festival.

Their hits included the Civil War-era ballad of a condemned prisoner, " Tom
Dooley," and " M.T.A," the rollicking tale of Charlie, the man who "never
returned" because of a Boston transit fare increase.

With other groups, including the Weavers, the Kingston Trio was credited
with helping generate popular acceptance of later folk artists, including
Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary.

But the Kingston Trio's overtly commercial approach to Appalachian, Calypso
and other traditional melodies alarmed many folk purists.

Allan Shaw, founder and president of Folk Era Records in Naperville,
Illinois, said most of the complaints stemmed from professional jealousy. He
said the group's resounding popularity owed to younger listeners in
particular, who felt that the tunes were so simple that they "could play it
and make it their own."

He added that Mr. Reynolds, a tenor who also played four-string guitar and
percussion instruments such as bongos and congas, excelled in harmony and
the wise-cracking stage banter crucial to the act's appeal.

At a Los Angeles nightclub in 1960, Mr. Reynolds introduced a song called
"Coplas."

"We had the good luck of picking up this in Mexico," he said.

"That's not all we picked up," Shane replied.

The group's chemistry was based on this raking sense of fun. Guard was
called "our acknowledged leader," while Shane was "our sex symbol" and Mr.
Reynolds "the runt of the litter."

Nicholas Wells Reynolds was born July 27, 1933, in San Diego and grew up in
nearby Coronado [California]. His father, a Navy captain, was a guitarist
and singer and organized his three children into family singalongs.

He was studying business at Menlo College [in Palo Alto, California] near
San Francisco [California] when he met Shane and Guard, who grew up in
Hawaii together. They began playing music at college functions and made a
huge impression at San Francisco's Purple Onion nightclub. A publicist saw
their act, insisted on voice lessons and signed them to the prestigious
Capitol Records label.

The trio grabbed national attention with "Tom Dooley" in 1958. The recording
sold 3 million copies and won a Grammy Award in the category of best country
and western performance (the folk category had not been established).

The next year, when folk was added to the awards, the group's album "The
Kingston Trio at Large" won its only other Grammy.

Other notable recordings included "The Tijuana Jail," "Scotch and Soda," "A
Worried Man" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" Mr. Reynolds once sang
the last on the White House lawn during the Johnson administration.

The group made a world tour in 1961, after which Guard left because of a
clash over the music's direction. According to Life, he wanted the band to
focus on more "authentic" folk music and learn to read music. Guard, who
formed the Whiskyhill Singers, died in 1991. His replacement, Stewart, died
in January. Shane is retired and living in Phoenix.

Mr. Reynolds built and raced Formula B race cars during his years with the
group and later sought a quieter life of ranching and antique dealing in the
southern Oregon community of Port Orford. He rejoined a reformatted version
of the Kingston Trio in 1991 and retired in 2003.

His marriages to Joan Harriss and Linda Peacock ended in divorce.

Survivors include his third wife, Leslie Yerger Reynolds of Coronado; a son
from his first marriage, Joshua Reynolds of Portland, Oregon; three children
from his second marriage, Jennifer Reynolds of Bandon, Oregon, Annie Moore
of San Diego and John Reynolds of Coronado; two sisters; and three
grandchildren.

In 2006, Mr. Reynolds spoke about the Kingston Trio's commercial success and
its legacy, remarking that the band had been shocked by the blacklisting of
the Weavers for the outspoken political stances conveyed in their music.

"We played their kind of music when we were first performing in colleges,"
he said. "But when we formed the trio, when we first got booked into San
Francisco's Purple Onion, we had to sit down and make a decision: Are we
going to remain apolitical with our music? Or are we going to slit our
throats and get blacklisted for doing protest music? We decided we'd like to
stay in this business for a while. And we got criticized a lot for that."

"If Bob Dylan or Joan Baez had come out at that time, they'd have been dead
in the water," he added. "But four or five years later, [their music] became
commercially viable."