Until the Last Note Rings George Grove and the Living Legacy of American Folk Music

Folk music does more than entertain. It carries family stories, preserves history, crosses generations and reminds Americans who they were - and perhaps who they still might become.

In this special edition of Arizona Roundup, host Stuart Rosebrook welcomes George Grove, the celebrated musician whose remarkable career includes 41 years with the Kingston Trio and his continuing work with the Folk Legacy Trio. Their warm, often humorous conversation travels from the mountains of North Carolina to Nashville recording studios, military bandstands, the Grand Ole Opry, international concert stages and, finally, Prescott's Sharlot Hall Museum.

The program celebrates an extraordinary musician, but it also tells a larger story: how American music is handed down from one generation to another, one instrument to another and one unforgettable song at a time.

A Childhood Filled with Music

George Grove grew up in western North Carolina, where music was not simply something heard on a record. It was part of everyday life.

His father had played trombone, trumpet and piano while working his way through college, so musical instruments were always close at hand. When George's older sister began taking piano lessons, four-year-old George discovered that he could climb onto the bench and play by ear what she was struggling to learn.

His sister may not have conquered the piano, but she did become highly successful with the family record player. One day she brought home the Kingston Trio's Live at the Hungry i. Young George claimed the album and announced that someday he would be one of those musicians.

It sounded like the oversized dream of a 12-year-old boy. Remarkably, it came true.

George's musical education also took place on front porches, around campfires, at churches and through radio broadcasts from Hickory, North Carolina. He listened to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and watched mountain musicians gather with banjos, fiddles, guitars and homemade instruments.

He remembers the Daniel Boone Wagon Train, with its Conestoga wagons, campfires, country ham and music offered at stops along the route. These were not formal concerts presented behind velvet ropes. They were community experiences in which music, food, history and human companionship belonged together.

That may be the first great lesson of this program: folk music belongs to the people.

From the Latin Club to the Stage

George freely admits that he was not among the most popular students in high school. He belonged to the Latin Club and the Chemistry Club - the sort of resume that rarely produces a long waiting list of cheerleaders hoping for a date.

Then talent contests became popular. George recruited two other young men, formed a folk group and began performing songs made famous by the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, and the Chad Mitchell Trio. They entered talent competitions and kept winning. Suddenly, George had an identity - and, as he cheerfully remembers, a somewhat improved social life.

At Wake Forest University, he continued developing as a musician. He formed a group called the Foresters and expanded from traditional folk music into the emerging folk-rock sound of the 1960s. In 1967, the group traveled through Europe on a USO tour, entertaining personnel at American and NATO installations during the tense years of the Cold War.

Music had already begun opening doors that George could never have predicted.

That shared Wake Forest connection also produces one of the program's most delightful surprises. Stuart and George discover during their conversation that they are both Demon Deacons. Their reunion gives the interview an easy warmth - as though two old college friends have unexpectedly found one another several decades and a few thousand songs later.

Uncle Sam Finds a Musician

George graduated in 1969 with a degree in music, specializing in piano and trumpet. Two weeks later, his draft notice arrived.

In what he jokingly calls the brilliant logic of a young banjo player, he decided to avoid being drafted by enlisting. The Army initially placed him in infantry officer candidate school, but physical injuries eventually ended that route.

Then George learned about an opening in the Army band at Fort Monroe, Virginia. He auditioned successfully and spent the remainder of his service as a pianist and occasional bugler. Even when life seemed determined to send him in another direction, music found him again.

After leaving the Army, George performed with a gifted singer and songwriter named Judy Ward. But while Judy had found the life she wanted along the Virginia coast, George felt compelled to pursue a larger career. New York and Los Angeles seemed overwhelming to the young man from North Carolina, so he chose Nashville.

He arrived, as he recalls, at about the same time as 10,000 other hopeful young musicians who intended to become the next great star. George took a practical approach. He played studio sessions for free so people could hear his ability and, just as importantly, learn that he was dependable. He might not become Nashville's next singing sensation, but he knew he could build a life in music. Then came the opportunity that changed everything.

I Have Been in the Kingston Trio Since Monday

In 1976, George heard that the Kingston Trio needed a banjo player. He flew to Atlanta and auditioned for founding member Bob Shane. Two weeks later, Shane called and offered him the position.

When Shane said the group was in Chicago, George asked for a plane ticket and promised to arrive Monday. For years afterward, he joked that he had been a member of the Kingston Trio 'since Monday.' That Monday lasted 41 years.

George became part of a celebrated musical institution whose songs helped define the American folk revival. The Kingston Trio had enjoyed extraordinary fame from the late 1950s through the 1960s, bringing folk music into popular culture and introducing millions of listeners to songs built around acoustic instruments, close harmonies and memorable stories.

George's years with the group placed him alongside some of the most influential musicians in American popular music. He performed at the Grand Ole Opry and heard Minnie Pearl tell Bob Shane that the Kingston Trio had helped keep country music alive. The group's breakthrough recording of Tom Dooley received the first Grammy presented in what was then called the Country and Western category. A separate folk category was established the following year.

George also remembers being backstage at the Grand Ole Opry when Dolly Parton sang I Will Always Love You to Porter Wagoner as their professional partnership was coming to an end. Experiences like that gave him more than good stories. They gave him a sense of gratitude for the history he had been privileged to witness.

The Musical Wisdom of Knowing What Not to Play

Some of George Grove's most important lessons came from the veteran Nashville musicians he met backstage at the Grand Ole Opry and later joined on the road.

They taught him that musical maturity is not demonstrated by playing every impressive phrase a musician knows. It is demonstrated by knowing what not to play - and when not to play it.

A professional musician serves the song, the featured performer, the other musicians and the audience. Talent matters, but so do restraint, judgment and humility. Every musician needs enough room for his or her gift to be heard.

It is a lesson that reaches far beyond the stage. Good leadership, conversation and collaboration all require the same discipline. Sometimes the finest contribution is not another flourish but a little more space for someone else.

Earl Scruggs and the Mystery of the Banjo

No account of George Grove's musical life would be complete without the banjo. His earliest inspiration was Earl Scruggs, whose revolutionary playing showed what the instrument could become. Years later, when the Earl Scruggs Revue opened for the Kingston Trio, George finally had the opportunity to meet his hero.

He entered Scruggs's dressing room determined to ask a profound question about the instrument. What emerged was a highly practical inquiry: How tightly should the banjo head be tuned? Scruggs responded with a twinkle: tighten it until it breaks, then ease it back a little.

That mixture of technical wisdom, mountain humor and musical instinct stayed with George. Years later, he and Scruggs were inducted into the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame during the same ceremony, with Scruggs honored posthumously.

George's own favorite instrument is equally memorable. Working with master banjo maker Greg Deering, he commissioned a one-of-a-kind instrument decorated with an elaborate Jurassic scene. Its neck contains dinosaurs, volcanoes, rivers and palm trees formed from mother-of-pearl, coral, tourmaline, petrified cactus and other materials.

The result became affectionately known as the Banjosaurus. It is both an exceptional musical instrument and a work of art - the sort of banjo that proves folk musicians are perfectly capable of preserving history while having a little fun with prehistory.

The Folk Legacy Trio

After George's long tenure with the Kingston Trio ended in 2017, he and fellow member Rick Dougherty realized that neither was ready to leave the stage. They began searching for a third voice - not merely a good singer, but someone capable of creating that mysterious additional sound that appears when harmonies blend perfectly.

They found it in Jerry Siggins, who had spent 27 years as lead singer of the Diamonds.

Together, Grove, Dougherty and Siggins formed the Folk Legacy Trio. Their repertoire reaches well beyond any one group. It celebrates music associated with the Kingston Trio, the Limeliters, Peter, Paul and Mary, the Chad Mitchell Trio, the Weavers, Tom Paxton, Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver, Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Mamas and the Papas and others who shaped the great American folk era.

These are familiar songs, but they are not treated as museum pieces. Through carefully constructed arrangements and the trio's remarkable vocal blend, the music becomes immediate again. That is what a true legacy should do. It honors the past without becoming trapped there.

Folk Music Is the Story of Us

Near the end of the program, the conversation returns to the meaning of the folk festival itself.

Folk music often begins with ordinary people singing about their families, communities, disappointments, journeys, loves and losses. Some performers possess astonishing technique; others know only a few chords. Both can contribute because the tradition is grounded in participation rather than perfection.

The songs tell the stories of people who crossed mountains, settled new communities, endured hardships and carried their instruments wherever they went. Long before recorded entertainment became universally available, music brought people together to sing, dance, remember and make sense of life.

That tradition will come alive again in Prescott when the Folk Legacy Trio performs its special opening concert at Sharlot Hall Museum on Friday, October 2, followed by the museum's 42nd Folk Music Festival on Saturday, October 3.

The festival will bring together dozens of performers and provide opportunities to hear songs, encounter musicians and experience the welcoming spirit that has always made folk music a community art.

Things to Remember

Folk music is living history. It carries the experiences of families, communities and generations in a form people can sing and share.

George Grove's childhood declaration that he would someday join the Kingston Trio reminds listeners that youthful dreams sometimes recognize a calling before the rest of life catches up.

Musical excellence requires more than technical ability. It also requires reliability, humility and knowing when to leave room for another person's contribution.

The instruments, radio programs, records, teachers and family experiences surrounding children can awaken interests that shape an entire lifetime.

A legacy survives when it is performed with vitality, not merely preserved with nostalgia.

Things to Share

Share the program with someone who remembers the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, the Limeliters or the great folk-rock music of the 1960s and 1970s.

Introduce a younger listener to a song such as Tom Dooley, Where Have All the Flowers Gone or California Dreamin' - and share the history and human story behind it.

Tell others about George Grove's 41-year journey with the Kingston Trio and the continuing work of the Folk Legacy Trio.

Share the reminder that the best collaborators do not merely display their own gifts; they create room for the gifts of others.

Invite family members and friends to experience folk music together at Sharlot Hall Museum.

Things to Take Note Of

Folk music has influenced country, bluegrass, rock, gospel and popular music far more deeply than many listeners realize.

Small cultural institutions, local festivals and community performers are essential to preserving America's musical inheritance.

Folk festivals are participatory experiences. They encourage listeners not only to applaud but also to sing, learn, play, write and create.

A musical instrument can be both a working tool and a piece of visual storytelling - as George's one-of-a-kind Banjosaurus wonderfully demonstrates.

The most meaningful careers are often built through a combination of talent, disciplined preparation, dependability and openness to unexpected opportunities.

Things to Take Action On

Listen to this edition of Arizona Roundup and invite another music lover to listen with you.

Attend the Folk Legacy Trio's opening concert at Sharlot Hall Museum on Friday, October 2.

Return for the 42nd Folk Music Festival on Saturday, October 3, and experience the music, stories and community surrounding this enduring American tradition.

Encourage a child or young person to try an instrument, learn an old song or ask an older family member about the music that shaped his or her life.

Support the musicians, museums and local organizations that keep cultural history alive.

Come Hear the Music and Become Part of the Story

This edition of Arizona Roundup is much more than a conversation about a distinguished musical career. It is an invitation to hear America's continuing story through the strings of a banjo, the blending of three voices and the songs ordinary people have carried across generations.

Follow the work and appearances of the Folk Legacy Trio at FolkLegacyTrio.com. The trio's current concert schedule confirms its October 2 appearance at Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott.

Listeners are also encouraged to follow Stuart Rosebrook and Arizona Roundup and to visit Sharlot Hall Museum for current concert, festival, ticket and visitor information.

Come for the songs you already love. Stay for the stories you never knew.

Folk music is not merely something America once sang. It is something America is still singing.