I'll try to answer your questions as best I can by taking an over-view approach. First of all, trying to compare musical groups within a particular genre is a very subjective endeavor. Each group had (has) its own sound and personality derived from the mingling of the individual talents that made (make) up the group. To avoid confusion, for now let me address those characteristics as they pertain to the original personnel configurations of the three groups in question. And please understand - these are just my own subjective observations. I expect others here will have different opinions.
The Kingston Trio by all measures was the most commercially successful of all these groups. The KT was Capitol Record's top-selling act until The Beatles signed with the label. With multiple chart records during the Dave Guard era, and continuing into the John Stewart era, the KT was by far the leader in commercial record sales. It was also the Kingston Trio that opened the door to the college concert market, which had previously been virtually non-existent. But since Bob, Nick and Dave had started performing while they were in college, they captivated that age group and created a demand for their music to be brought to college campuses around the country. Bob Shane has always claimed that the group made more money from live appearances than from record sales, and in the early days a large number of those live appearances were at colleges.
As a result of their being the most visible act at the time, they influenced other groups that followed in their footsteps (as they, in fact, had been influenced by such predecessors as The Weavers.) The commercial success of The Kingston Trio spawned hundreds of wanna-be folk ensembles that sprang up on college campuses in the late 1950's and early '60's. As a matter of fact, one of these groups was The Brothers Four.
I'd like to make a distinction here, tho, between the commercial folk groups of the day and the so-called "traditional" folk music of such groups as The New Lost City Ramblers, for example. Whereas groups and artists in that category tended to emulate the traditional styles of rural musicians (the "true" folk singers), the commercial groups sought to polish the music and present it in a style that was (in my opinion) more entertaining. This included adding an element of comedy to the presentation, particularly with regard to the stage patter between songs.
Showmanship played a big role, then, in the success of all three groups. Each group had its own style in this regard, altho as a fan, my favorite was always The Limeliters. Lou Gottlieb had the most unique stage presence of any of the "folk music" entertainers, and with his over-your-head professorial stage patter he was a huge hit with the college crowd. Dave Guard, and later, John Stewart, took that role in The Kingston Trio, both with a kind of subtle style that always came with a surprise punch line.
As with their comedy style, each group had its own musical style as well. The Kingston Trio, for the most part, created their vocal arrangements "on the natch", as Nick used to say, meaning that for the most part they didn't write out their parts, but created them "naturally" based on the vocal ranges and characteristics of each individual voice. However, apparently Lou Gottlieb did write some arrangements for the group, altho I can't cite which ones.
Lou, Alex and Glenn were more "educated" musicians and their arrangements (mostly created by Lou and written out in many cases) tended to be more calculated and precise. Again, the combination of the vocal qualities of each member contributed to the unique sound of The Limeliters.
The Brothers Four had the good fortune of working with noted arranger and producer, Milt Okun. When I joined the group I was given vocal charts written by Milt to learn my parts. The Brothers Four sound was more akin to the "glee club" approach of college singing groups pre folk music with very structured arrangements. Bob Shane used to joke that The Brothers Four sang in 4-part unison, which was true in many sections of a lot of the repertoire. I used to delight in pointing out several instances, tho, where the Trio sang in 3-part unison.
In trying to compare each of these groups in terms of musical ability, all were good-to-great singers. Bob Shane's and Glenn Yarbrough's voices are two of the most distinctive in all of folk music. As soloists, I rank these two at the top of the list as vocal greats. But all the members of these three groups had decent voices - they sang in tune and harmonized well.
Instrumentally I wouldn't call any of the members of these groups virtuosos. Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds never learned to read a lick of music. They played by ear and got to be pretty good at what they did. Alex Hassilev and Dave Guard took their instrumental duties more seriously and both of them were influential in developing my own approach to guitar and banjo. And I should also point out that when I switched over to playing tenor guitar in the Kingston Trio, I studied Nick's style of playing closely. His tenor guitar was actually the driving rhythm in many of the KT songs and I eventually got that pretty well in hand (literally!)
In closing, let me reiterate that each of these groups, by virtue of the individual members, had its own sound and style. Stylistically, if I were to use one word to describe each group (and I'll probably get hacked for this) it would be as follows:
Kingston Trio - carefree
Limeliters - cerebral
Brothers Four - structured
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