With the Trio, there were occasional shows where we had an opening act. Some of them were big names on their own: Tom Paxton, John Sebastion, Livingston Taylor, Josh White, Jr., Tom Rush, The Shaw Brothers (the core of the Brandywine Singers) and John Stewart are a few that come to mind off the top of my head.
We never discussed play lists with the opening acts, as they all knew the KT repertoire and most of them played their own original material anyhow. Opening acts normally did anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes.
Occasionally we'd have some local act open for us, but none of them stand out in my memory. Oh wait - I do remember one: Tim and Molly O'Brien (brother and sister) at the Paramount in Denver. Their set ran long as I recall and it kind of pissed us off. Plus the fact that they were pretty boring, we thought.
Oh, one more just came to mind: Dick Weissman opened for The Trio at the Boulder Theater in Colorado once. Dick was a member of The Journeymen (with John Phillips and Scott McKenzie)and at the time he opened for us he was teaching musicology at Denver University. Dick is more of a musician than an entertainer, and, not to disparage his talent in any way, he didn't seem to hold the crowd very well. He sat on a stool and played very obscure traditional folk songs, mostly accompanying himself with clawhammer banjo.
Which leads me to a quick aside. There is an element of trad folk music and bluegrass that seems to negate the importance of vocal quality. Singing barely in tune with a scratchy, nasal voice is apparently acceptable in this genre. The female singer in the local bluegrass group that opened for me at Buncom Day last Saturday was a perfect example. These "traditionalists" apparently try to emulate the mountain folk who were the source of much of this music, most of whom had no formal music education and sang "a naturale". I wish I could appreciate what they do, but my orientation is more toward a polished performance.
As for comedians, I don't recall ever having one as an opening act during my tenure with either group. Altho when The Brothers Four toured Japan we had a Japanese MC that traveled with us and helped us communicate with the audience. I believe he opened the show with a few minutes of comedy, most of which was over our heads. And it was a great honor to meet and listen to Ronnie Schell at the 45th Anniversary Tribute Show for the Trio at the Birchmere in Virginia. (There's a DVD of that show available from Rediscover Music.) Ronnie was the opening comic for the Trio in the early years and his introduction of the group can be heard at the beginning of "from the Hungry i" and his famous intro to the "College Concert" album: "I love the way they sing, they love the way I do their shirts."
During the time when Nick had come back to sing with the group I actually opened for the Trio on a couple occasions. And on the flip-side of this question, the Trio occasionally served as the opening act. We opened for the Smothers Brothers and the Everly Brothers (huh - both "brothers" acts). Also, there were many occasions where we were co-billed with another act, like The Association. I remember being in the dressing room as Bob Shane and Larry Ramos were arguing about which group would go on first. Bob always wanted to be the first act on so we could get back to the hotel sooner and miss the traffic leaving the venue.
Rarely did any of the openers we worked with join us for a tune on stage (maybe John Stewart a couple times), but we always enjoyed socializing with them backstage. We had great times with all the entertainers we worked with. The only exception was the Everly Brothers. They didn't talk to anybody, especially not each other. Meri and I were very fortunate to get them to stand with us for a photo op. And after we rushed out and had the picture printed, they were kind enough to sign it. It was no doubt Meri's hypnotic beauty that lulled them into that.
Responses