Tom Dooley: The Kingston Trio
Released in 1958, this song won the Grammy for Best Country and Western Performance at the first Grammy awards. At the time, no folk music category existed.
The next year, largely as a result of The Kingston Trio and Tom Dooley, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences instituted a folk category and the Trio won the first Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording for its second studio album At Large.
Tags: Kingston Trio
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
June 2, 2010 at 10:45 am
yousendit link:
https://download.yousendit.com/OHo1R0lYcVh3NUt4dnc9PQ
June 2, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Long time since I heard this one. Like it a lot 🙂
June 2, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Christer,
I think it was the first one of theirs I ever heard so it’s a favorite.
June 2, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Remember the 1959 movie based on this song?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052998/
I did see that, but thought, even at that young age, that the plot did NOT have enough meat on it for me.
June 2, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Rick,
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that movie. With Michael Landon in it I think I would have remembered.
June 2, 2010 at 6:35 pm
here we go again:
The first hit for the Kingston Trio, this song is about Tom Dula (pronounced Dooley) who was a real person. He was a gifted fiddle player and enjoyed the company of ladies. During the Civil War he served the Confederacy as a musician and was captured near the end of the war and held as a prisoner of war. After he was released he returned to his life and his relationship with Ann Melton and other women including Ann’s cousin Laura Foster. On the day that he and Laura were to be married she disappeared and was found weeks later in a shallow grave. She had been stabbed in the heart. Tom knew that it was known he was the last known person to see her alive so he fled the county and went to work for Colonel James Grayson on his farm in a nearby county. Dula stayed long enough to earn money for a pair of boots and then left for Tennessee where the posse with assistance from Colonel Grayson found him. He was taken back to North Carolina and was represented by ex-Governor of North Carolina Zebulon Vance. After a much publicized trial and appeal he was found guilty and hanged in Statesville North Carolina. The graves of Laura and Ann are visited each year by a number of tourists. Tom’s grave is on private property and is not open to the public. The “Tom Dooley” museum is located in Ferguson North Carolina. The reason for the murder is not known but it appears he may have killed her because of contracting a venereal disease from her
June 3, 2010 at 9:42 am
sblake,
I knew Tom was real and I knew bits and pieces of his story, but I never did know the reason for the murder. Did the murder take place in Tenn? I wonder why boots topped his list of needs.
June 2, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Kat,
I haven’t been on your site for awhile. Why were you ousted from blogger?
Glad I found you.
Linda
June 2, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Linda,
I was totally booted. Music infringement is frowned upon by the powers that be so I went. It happened when I was right right in the middle of writing. At first, I figured I was finished then I decided to make the move to WordPress.
Glad you found me!
June 4, 2010 at 1:02 am
Glad you aren’t “finished”. Hoping you’re NEVER “finished”.
June 4, 2010 at 9:29 am
Thanks, Rick
I would prefer not to be finished!