Stereo Concert

AMG Review of Stereo Concert

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

The title of this album -- their second concert recording in barely a year -- explains its initial appeal, as an early live stereo document of the Kingston Trio's sound, at a time when stereo was new and a big selling point. The fact that many of the Trio's fans were college students who had availed themselves of the new players in order to enjoy classical and jazz in stereo only boosted the appeal of Stereo Concert, which was recorded at El Paso's Liberty Hall on Dec. 15, 1958, Another obvious appeal was that Capitol Records wasn't the prime mover behind the recording, A local record distributor, Lee Morton, recorded the show in the then-new dual channel process, with the knowledge of the group and their management. It was their manager, Frank Werber, who convinced the label that there was a release there. Capitol, in turn, bought the tape and released Stereo Concert exactly three months later. The show captured the original Kingston Trio at the peak of their powers, a year into their success with a considerable body of music well within their grasp. The entire repertory for the show was drawn from the group's prior albums, including what scholar Ben Blake regards as the best of the Trio's various extant renditions of "Raspberries, Strawberries." Folk Era Records has reissued this show with bonus tracks and a different cover from the original, which was prepared so hastily that Capitol simply re-used the photo from the cover of the Trio's debut LP, which was still on the charts at the time and resulted in considerable confusion for fans and retailers, not to mention interested parties trying to absorb their history in the decades that followed.