Just Folks

Revolutionary is an adjective the Kingston Trio never wanted.

The group, which is playing Saturday in Glendale, always stressed that they were entertainers--pure and simple.

They started out as a calypso act, hence the name Kingston Trio, as in Kingston, Jamaica. Their first album included calypso, folk and other styles, but the folk song “Tom Dooley” became a huge hit.

As trio member Bob Shane tells it, after “Tom Dooley” hit No. 1, an executive from Capitol Records came to the group with a very large check and said, “From now on, you’re folk singers,” and the band replied: “You bet your ass we are.”

All three members of the original trio--Shane, Dave Guard and Nick Reynolds--weren’t college business majors for nothing.

The group is sometimes dismissed as folk music’s equivalent of Pat Boone. Just as Boone recorded sanitized, white-bread versions of R & B songs, naysayers argue, the Kingston Trio produced watered-down folk music for mainstream pop audiences.

But unlike Boone, the trio’s breakthrough hit, “Tom Dooley,” was a record utterly different from anything else on the pop music charts in 1958. Other hits that year included the Phil Spector-produced “To Know Him Is to Love Him” by the Teddy Bears, “Volare” by Domenico Modugno and “The Chipmunk Song” by David Seville.

With the bare-bones accompaniment of two guitars and a five-string banjo, they reintroduced a venerable musical genre to a younger generation and paved the way into the commercial market for other folk-oriented artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary.

The group went on to make 30 albums. Sales of acoustic guitars skyrocketed, and millions of college students were soon strumming and warbling their hits. They once had five albums in the Top 10 at the same time. Their other hits include “Scotch and Soda,” “MTA” and “Scarlet Ribbons.”

But unlike the folk singers who followed them, the trio steered clear of political messages, a considerable feat in the 1960s. They didn’t even tell jokes about politics.

“The worst thing about political jokes is that they get elected,” Shane said. “Our motto has always been too much fun is not enough.”

Now 40 years and many songs later, the trio--now composed of Reynolds, Shane and George Grove--is still touring.

Why?

“It’s fun. We’re doing it for a good time,” Shane said. “It’s fun when people come up and say, ‘You’re a part of my life.’ ”

* The Kingston Trio in concert. Sat., 8 p.m., at the Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. $22.50-$29.50. (800) 233-3123.

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Lightnin’ Strikes Cozy’s: Lightnin’ Willie and the Poorboys, named after a Creedence Clearwater Revival song, are coming to Cozy’s on Friday night.

Lightnin’ Willie Hermes--what a great name!--started out playing on the street over in Old Town Pasadena about three years ago.

“This band was never planned, it just happened,” says Hermes. “Now it’s starting to get a little lucrative.”

Lucrative enough that the group is currently working on its second CD, tentatively titled “Buy American.”

“We consider ourselves an American roots band,” Hermes says. “We’re blues driven, but we’re not a hard-core blues band.”

Musically, Hermes likes to keep it upbeat.

“I like the swing feel,” he says. “I want people to tap their feet--I want them to feel it without thinking about it.”

Current members of the Poorboys are Hurricane Jake Fitzgerald on harmonica, Jeff Roberts on bass, and Keeno Burns on drums. Hermes says this combination has a good vibe on stage.

“People say to us, ‘You’re the happiest band we’ve seen in years,’ ” Hermes says. “When people say that to you, you’re doing your job.”

* Lightnin’ Willie and the Poorboys, Fri. night at Cozy’s Bar and Grill, 14058 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. $6 cover. (818) 986-6000.