Robert Castle Schoen (February 1, 1934 – January 26, 2020), known professionally as Bob Shane, was an American singer and guitarist who was a founding member of The Kingston Trio. In that capacity, Shane became a seminal figure in the revival of folk and other acoustic music as a popular art form in the United States in the late 1950s through the mid-1960s.
Shane was born in Hilo, Hawaii. Interested in music since childhood, he taught himself how to play the ukulele and guitar. He met a fellow guitarist, Dave Guard, and the two performed together beginning in the early ’50s. While attending college in California, in 1956, Shane met Nick Reynolds, who joined Shane and Guard in a singing group (which expanded to several members) that went under various names. They were unsuccessful, so Shane returned to Hawaii and performed as a solo act, then returned to California, where he found Reynolds and Guard performing in a group they’d named the Kingston Quartet. He began to use the phonetic spelling Shane in 1957.
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| Bob Shane, Dave Guard & Nick Reynolds |
While performing in a San Francisco nightclub, the group was seen by publicist Frank Werber, who suggested that Guard and Reynolds team up with Shane as a trio. The three musicians/singers debuted formally as the Kingston Trio at the Purple Onion in San Francisco in the spring of 1957 and were a quick hit. They soon moved over to the more prominent Hungry i nightclub where their close harmonies, impressive guitar work and witty banter guaranteed sell-out crowds every night.
Signed to Capitol Records and paired with producer Voyle Gilmore, the group’s appeal easily transferred to the recording medium and they became a national phenomenon. In addition to their best-selling albums, they scored a #1 single the first time out with 1958’s “Tom Dooley,” and went on to place a total of 23 singles on that Billboard chart.
For several years the Kingston Trio was described as "the most envied, the most imitated, and the most successful singing group, folk or otherwise, in all show business" and "the undisputed kings of the folk singing rage by every yardstick". The Trio's massive record sales in its early days made acoustic folk music commercially viable, paving the way for singer-songwriter, folk rock, and Americana artists who followed in their wake.
In 1961, Guard became the first original member to leave the group, replaced by John Stewart. That line-up remained together for six years, disbanding in 1967. Shane had not been in favour of the break-up of the Kingston Trio, both because he felt that the Trio could adapt to changing musical tastes and because he had by then become a thoroughly accomplished entertainer and a canny marketer.
Deciding to stay in the entertainment business, Shane experimented both with solo work (he recorded several singles, including a version of the song "Honey" that later became a million-seller for Bobby Goldsboro) and with different configurations with other folk-oriented performers.
In 1969, he asked permission of Reynolds and Werber, still his partners, to lease the group's name. They assented with the provisos that Shane assemble a group of comparable musical quality to the two original configurations and that "New" be appended to the name. Shane organized two troupes under the name of "The New Kingston Trio". The first consisted of guitarist Pat Horine and banjoist Jim Connor in addition to Shane and lasted from 1969 to 1973, the second including guitarist Roger Gambill and banjoist Bill Zorn from 1973 until 1976. Though both of these groups made a limited number of recordings and television appearances, neither generated very much interest from fans or the public at large.
Shane purchased the rights to the Kingston Trio name outright from Reynolds and Werber, and all subsequent iterations of Shane's troupe since late 1976 have been known simply as the Kingston Trio. The personnel in the group changed several times, though Shane and Grove remained constants. Shane guided the group to a success that, if never the equivalent of the group's first decade, was nonetheless steady and consistent. Shane's Kingston Trio relied heavily on a "greatest hits formula" augmented by a number of other songs acquired through the years that fans had accepted as part of the group's repertoire.
In March 2004, a month after his 70th birthday, Shane suffered a debilitating heart attack that forced him into retirement from touring and performing after 47 years with the act. Though Shane had initially planned to return to the group after convalescing, the attack was severe enough to warrant Shane's permanent withdrawal from performing with the group. He was replaced by former New Kingston Trio member Bill Zorn.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Best Classic Bands)