For $2 ( especially four months ago when I bought this), I absolutely stole this record. Furthermore, this record illustrates my pattern of buying things without fully looking them over ( which worked out greatly in my favor this time). In fact, I greatly regret not using this for a Saturday record.
To further illustrate the point made above, when I was going thru discount records at Half Price a few months back, I came across this. Being a fan of the Kingston Trio as well as paying $2 for records, I quickly bought this without giving it much study ( as Dave Guard was a founding member of the Trio). Neither did I look at it much when I got it home. No, it was not until two weeks ago when I was about to play this and was reading the back cover when I saw Judy Henske’s name associated with this. And thus to my great surprise, there on the front cover, starting at me was one of the most talented folk singers of her generation ( and probably one of the most prettiest). How could I have missed this? Somewhere back in my mind, I think I probably knew she started with this group but like many thinks in the last year, that piece of information got filed way to the back.
Yes, I am a big fan of Henske’s work and have been trying to find something to get her on this blog ever since I started it. Now , yes, it is a shame that I finally found somethin now that I am trying to wind this down as opposed to when I first started it ( and wrote longer posts), but something sometime is better than nothing. Henske ( Chippewa Falls, WI 1936), started her recording career with this group. After the disbandment, she worked on television and made various television appearances. See, this is why it would have been better to do this in the early years as I already tire of writing this post and am really short selling this. I guess I will wrap it up by stating that it was her appearance on the 1963 Hootenanny Hoot that brought her to my attention. Also, for my money, there is no better version of “High Flying Bird”. NONE.
So from Capitol in 1962, we have this record, which has all the positives of a Kingston Trio record, plus Henske. Pretty good track list. The songs are all over the place in terms of style and tempo making it a diverse piece of work. I liked it. I recorded the whole thing for sample consideration. Also, the group was rounded out by Cyrus Faryar and David “Buck” Wheat ( who played bass with The Kingston Trio), who were equally important to this. It was Faryar who suggest Henske to Guard, I believe.
While I was not reading things with this, another fact I overlooked was that it had my favorite folk song on here, “Railroad Bill”, which I am submitting. Also” The Banks Of the Ohio” is just too good to ignore as well.