They Call The Wind Maria by The Kingston Trio

The second troupe of the Kingston Trio (Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, John Stewart) perform a song made popular by the first incarnation of the group with Dave Guard (replaced by Stewart) on its landmark album "From the Hungry i."

"They Call The Wind Maria" was one of the highlight songs from the moderately successful 1951 Lerner & Loewe musical "Paint Your Wagon." Originally sung by Rufus Smith, the 1969 film version of the play included a stunning rendition of the song by the recently deceased (June 30, 2009) baritone and actor Harve Presnell.

Though never a single record release, "Maria" was a highlight of the KT's "Hungry i" album and an often-requested number through the group's first ten years.

This version is from the just released remastered tape of a 1963 KT concert at the University of Kentucky called "Flashback 1963" on FolkEra Records. Bob Shane again plays rhythm guitar and sings the vocal lead, supported by harmony vocals and lead guitar by Stewart and spot-on rhythm on bongos by Reynolds.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• KingstonTrio
• TheyCallTheWindMaria
• HungryI
• PaintYourWagon
• Flashback

[YeahRightInc]

I would have sworn on the Hungry i album that I read Nick Reynolds sang the lead and played percussion on this song at that show. Am I remembering this wrong?

[CompVid101]

@YeahRightInc - actually, Reynolds is the only one NOT singing on this cut. Nick had a great and flexible voice - but three notes in, this is (and was on hungry i) none other than the inimitable voice of Bob Shane, arguably the best individual voice to come out of the pop-folk era. You Can hear John Stewart here singing behind Bob; on hungry i, it was Dave Guard. But the lead on both albums was certainly Shane. Nick is rockin' those bongos, though.

[ed1cat1]

What an awesome performance. To all of those folk purist snobs who diss the KT, I don't give a crap about political messages, social comment or Dylanesque hipness . I'm into the MUSIC. Musicanship, great voices, harmony, showmanship. These guys had it in spades and as evidenced by this clip, Bob Shane had one of the truly great voices of our time. So underrated because these guys decided that they wanted to make a good living at this.

[CompVid101]

@ed1cat1 - couldn't agree more, edcate!

[CompVid101]

@RiceMariah - Sorry, but you don't and your wrong on 2 counts. First, in England the name Maria was traditionally pronounced with a long i, Mar-Eye-ah. Second and more importantly, the song by Lerner and Loewe from their musical "Paint Your Wagon" is copyrighted and published as "Maria," as here. Google any site - L&L, the musical itself, Wikipedia, any of the Kingston trio albums it appears on, including this one - you will see "Maria" everywhere for this song.

[tokjct]

Many years ago, back in '59, when I was a student at Johns Hopkins and a Phi Sig, I had a guitar, and I knew about seven or eight chords. I had a fond affection for the Kingston Trio, amongst the folk groups of the day. One of their songs was Mariah and I adopted it as my theme song. (Sorry, folks, but that's how I always spelled it.) I must have sung it in the "House" and out hundreds of times...and my Goucher sweetheart of those days, Helen, sometimes would join me in a duet of the song.

[CompVid101]

@7855waldo - that, of course, is the whole point, waldo!

[7855waldo]

@sensei48 - Thanks for your observations, well received and appreciated.

One small point - I never had an opinion about the spelling of the name. I think either way is just fine, the main thing is, it's a wonderful song.

[sensei48]

@7855waldo -However, having said that, you misread my previous reply. I was urging you to seek non-internet sources - "off of the web" as opposed to on it - to confirm the accuracy of the spelling in question. Commercially-printed music and recordings are licensed from copyright - and you will find in every case that the spelling is "Maria." And for the sake of disclosure, this is video is my upload, CompVid101 being one of my other channels.

[sensei48]

@7855waldo - OK, enough levity. You're right, of course, about the unreliability of much of what's on the web - but of course, that has always been so in the era of mass media, including newspapers and books in the prior era. The point of a liberal education (and of course, this is a term that does not relate to politics) is to refine the ability to judge just what information is reliable and what is not.

[7855waldo]

@sensei48 - The plethora of unreliable narrratives coming at us from all directions. In the street or the blogospheres, there are no editors, no proofreaders and no fact-checkers..."

In your case, this warning is "pearls before swine."

[sensei48]

@7855waldo -Fool. Find the copyright info, printed sheet music, anything you want off of the internet. It was, is, and will be "Maria."