Customer Reviews

Twice Upon a Time

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"Once Upon a Time" was a two-record concert album of the Kingston Trio in the big showroom at the Sahara Tahoe, up there in the piney woods beside the big Sierra lake. It went on sale under the Tetragamatron label (Bill Cosby's record company) in 1969, three years after it was recorded.

"OUAT" has finally been reissued on cd. But this cd isn't that 1969 recording. Rather, this is a new concert disk, recorded during the same stand (July 1966), and now released for the first time.

Unlike it's big older brother, "Twice" has no overdubbing or echo-chamber polish. It's just the raw, unadulterated tape of one ST show that demonstrates -- yet again -- the Kingston Trio's amazing consistency in live performance: belting out material from a decade's worth of records, giving new twists to old jokes, and interacting energetically with an appreciative audience.

Even on the multiple false starts and screwups of "Thirsty Boots" (a terrific song never released during the Trio's original, ten-year run), they never cease to be entertaining. John Stewart makes an exasperated exit, Reynolds complains that "somebody in the front row is tittering at me!" and the audience never stops laughing.

The Kingston Trio, forty years after its 1967 breakup, is becoming the "Grateful Dead" of the early and middle 1960s: a steady flow of never-heard concert recordings crops up on Amazon and Collectors Choice, giving the original group a new, 21st-century lease on life.

I was big trio fan "in the day". I have purchased much of their newly released material that has been recovered from the archives. In my opinion, little of it has been worth the cost - "Twice Upon A Time" is no exception. I feel like I've been fleeced.

The propective buyer needs to consider that there was probably a good reason some of this stuff never got published when it was first recorded.

The Kingston Trio could be a great act - just purchase the old "College Concert" and "Back In Town". They could produce some wonderful music. Their version of "The First Time" on the New Frontier album is the finest I've ever heard. But in these recent releases of old material, they needed to pay more heed to quality control.

I bought this for my husband who is a huge Kingston Trio Fan. It had songs on it that he had never heard of, which surprised him. He loves it.

It's OK. I still enjoy the beginning of the Trio's musical career. Sometimes performances come off as short.