AMG Review of Best of the Decca Years

Cub Koda
All Music Guide

By the time the Kingston Trio ended up on Decca in early 1964, they were already established stars of the folk music set. But as a commercial entity, they had arguably peaked, losing original member Dave Guard and replacing him with John Stewart. But the group soldiered on for four more studio albums and the best of it is collected here on this 16-track collection. Although painted as a quaint coffeehouse group from the hootenanny days of folk music's history, the Kingston Trio actually had pretty big ears for a wide variety of material, ranging from pop to obscure Broadway material, to songs from up-and-coming folk artists they had originally influenced. John Stewart clocks in with three originals ("Hit And Run," "Children of the Morning" and "Gonna Go Down the River"), and contributes to the only other original on here, the group-penned "Stay Awhile." With plenty of great tunes from the pens of Mason Williams, Rod McKuen and Tom Paxton, this collection shines a light on a part of the group's history usually ignored, and shows that much good music emerged during their final days.