„Hang down your head Tom Dooley, hang down your head and cry ...“ If just by reading these words you hear the melody of this North Carolina folk song in your head, you’ve come to the right place. “Tom Dooley”, based on the murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County in 1866, was the first of many hits for The Kingston Trio – a trio of singing guitarists from the Bay Area, who took their name from Kingston, Jamaica, because they began by playing a lot of Calypsos in San Francisco clubs, or so the story goes. The fact that none of the members ever visited Jamaica (or that Calypso comes from nearby Trinidad/Tobago) didn’t get in the way of their success: recorded in 1958 and released on their debut album that same year, “Tom Dooley” became a million-seller and helped initiate the Folk revival.
This 10-CD-box set includes no less than 12 LPs by the The Kingston Trio, plus four successful albums each by their peers, The Highwaymen and The Brothers Four. Besides "Tom Dooley" you will hear evergreens like "Santiano", "Lemon Tree", "Michael", or "Greenfields", as well as more country-fied songs like "Wildwood Flower", "Rock Island Line", and " Riders in the Sky”. A great overview of the modern American folk scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s – and a melodious trip down memory lane.
