The Kingston Trio: Wherever We May Go (2006) is a superb documentary about the group. For those familiar with their music but not the group itself and its history, this 59-minute program is a perfect primer, a highly entertaining blend of history, anecdotes, rare film clips, and for the most part uninterrupted performances by the trio in its various incarnations. Shout! Factory's DVD also includes a feast of welcome extra features.

The show mainly focuses on the original Kingston Trio, formed in 1957 by Bob Shane, Dave Guard, and Nick Reynolds; Guard acrimoniously left the group in 1961 and was replaced by John Stewart. During this period The Kingston Trio was a fixture on TV variety shows, in a famous series of 7-Up commercials, and in live performances.

The documentary also reveals just how close they came to being TV stars, with the threesome naturally amusing in scenes from a pilot film, Young Men in a Hurry, an intended half-hour sitcom. They eventually turned that gig down, however: they were already playing an exhausting 300 live dates annually, during which time they also churned out upwards of three-and-a-half albums a year. When they officially disbanded in 1967 it was mainly because they were simply worn out.

The show is bolstered by revealing interviews with Shane, Reynolds, and Stewart. (Guard died of cancer in 1991.) Tom Smothers, Ronnie Schell (who used to open for the Trio), and biographer William J. Bush are also on hand to put the group into historical perspective.

Best of all is the music, songs generally presented in their entirety, including such hits as "Tom Dooley," "M.T.A.," "Scotch and Soda," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" Included are clips from a 1981 reunion concert (featuring at least six members from the group in its various incarnations, which continues to perform today though without any of the original members).

Video & Audio

The Kingston Trio: Wherever We May Go is presented full frame and looks just fine. The clips are of varying quality, but generally quite good. Some performances use shaky audio and video that has obviously been tweaked (see below). There are no subtitle options.

Extra Features

Shout! Factory has done it again, cramming this DVD with more than 90 minutes of supplementary features, almost all of which uses what appears to be outtakes and raw footage from the main documentary, and which includes interview subjects seen only here: Rod McKuen, Jerry Yester, Barry McGuire, Chip Douglas, etc. Stories Behind the Songs (31 minutes) goes into considerable detail on many of the Trio's biggest hits, some of which have rather murky origins. Similarly, The Kingston Family Tree-O (10 minutes) sifts through the labyrinthine permutations of the group, and gives due credit to the many back-up musicians as well.

What Made the Trio Tic, Tic, Tic? (18 minutes) is more of a catch-all, touching upon their costumes (those iconic striped shirts) and the like, while The Fourth Man - Frank Werber & The Kingston Trio (11 minutes) pays tribute to their longtime manager/publicist. Kingston Krazy (14 minutes) is an entertaining look at die-hard fans, collectors, and imitators, including one Japanese fan who snagged some discarded Kentucky Fried Chicken uniforms for his band's costumes.

Also included are three Bonus Performances (7 minutes), three 7Up Commercials (3 minutes), and The Trio Restored, actually a promo for "Live Feed," a computer process used on kinescopes that adds fluidity to motion and increases the sense of depth. The process isn't flawless, but this reviewer was generally impressed.

Parting Thoughts

The Kingston Trio: Wherever We May Go does what all the best music documentaries do: it makes you want to rush out and listen to more of its subject's music, armed with a new appreciation for and understanding of its accomplishments and place in popular music history. Better still, those with no knowledge of the group going in will likely walk away impressed with great songs they'll be humming for many days to come. Highly Recommended.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf - The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune and Taschen's forthcoming Cinema Nippon. Visit Stuart's Cine Blogarama here.