I was surprised to see the detail of this particular itinerary, tho. Our normal itineraries issued by Nikki Gary would have one page (or more) of flight schedules for each of us and a separate page (or more, depending on the length of the tour) of information about each venue, including local contacts, hotel accommodations, ground transportation, soundcheck schedules and showtimes.
The itinerary for the Kennedy Center show starts on June 5th with the following:
11:00 AM - Randi Wllenstein, Michael Sasser and Amy Swan leave Kennedy Center to pick up hospitality for Kingston Trio. Randi's providing the transportation.
3:30 PM - Reliable Limo 15-passenger van picks up Michael Sasser at Kennedy Center Hall of States and takes him to National Airport to meet the artists.
4:05 PM - Bob Shane, Bob Haworth, Ben Schubert and George Grove arrive at National Airport on Delta #900 from Cincinnati. Michael Sasser meets artist at gate with a sign that says "Kennedy Center." Van takes group to Watergate Hotel. (This was before meeting someone at the gate was disallowed because of 9/11).
The itinerary for June 6th starts at 7:30 AM with staff picking up Kingston Trio hospitality (basket, silver platter, juice, coffe service, bagels and muffins.) At 7:40 they pick up Amy Swan at 17th St. and Mass. Ave. At 7:50 the production crew leaves for the Capitol. At 8:00 the production crew meets the sound crew and they start to set up the sound system as Michael Sasser, Garth Ross and Amy Swan set up our hospitality. At 9:00 AM our dressing room motor coach arrives at the Capitol. At 9:40 Michael leaves the Capitol in a mini van to pick us up at the Watergate. At 10:10 we do a phone interview with WBIG-Oldies 100FM. At 10:20 Micahel picks us up at the Watergate to drive us to the Capitol. At 10:45 we do a sound check while Capitol Hill Security sweeps the area. At noon our show at the Capitol begins with remarks by James A. Johnson (Kennedy Center Chairman), Senator Kennedy of Mass. and congressman Oberstar of Minnesota. I don't know how long these wind-bags spoke, but apparently we sang a few songs after that, ending at 1:00.
This detailed itinerary continues thru the day, with a sound check at the Kennedy Center at 3:30, back to the hotel for a rest and returning to the Kennedy Center at 5:30. Show at 6:00, over at 7:00. 7:30 - Michael drives artist back to the Watergate.
Whew - I'm worn out just reading this. But there's no indication as to what this show was for. I imagine we knew at the time, but it's now lost in the foggy recesses this old brain. So now you've got me curious - why were we there???
In answer to your question about was it a gig "you just can't say no to"? Here's how we functioned: Nikki Gary would field offers from promoters, event planners, booking agents, etc. and negotiate with them as to our fee, hotel accommodations, transportation and any extras, such as hospitality at the venue. She would present these offers to Bob Shane for acceptance and I imagine that the only criteria for non-acceptance of a date would be a deficiency in the terms of our compensation. As hired hands, the rest of us really had no say in where and when we performed or for whom. When our itinerary for the week arrived in the mail we'd follow it dutifully.
Just to give you an idea of what that tour was like and why I don't have any specific recollection of why we played the Kennedy Center, the next day (June 7th) we travelled to Minneapolis (had that day off except for travel.) On the 8th we performed at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. On June 9th we flew to San Fransisco and drove to Grass Valley, CA for a 7:30 show at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. (That must've been a killer day - I didn't save the page with our flight schedule, but that would've been an early AM flight out of Minneapolis.) On the 10th we travelled to Irvine, CA (travel day) and on June 11th we played at the Crazy Horse Saloon.
As you can imagine, a lot of this we did on automatic pilot. All we had to do was get to the airport on time, catch our flight to wherever, do sound check at the scheduled time, grab some dinner, do the show, and then try and get some rest before the next day's itinerary led us on down the road.
The details of most of those days are difficult to recall. Certain specific events stand out for different reasons - lost luggage, meeting interesting people, or just the fact that we had the opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center. For whatever reason they booked us, it was an honor to play there.
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