The Kingston Trio, one of the folk era’s most successful acts, known for chart-topping hits “Tom Dooley” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” is reviving one of the group’s most poignant songs with a brand-new recording of SURVIVORS.
Written by the late John Stewart, who performed alongside founding Trio members Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, whose songwriting career produced such hits as the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer,” the 1974 song was inspired by the national trauma brought on by the Watergate scandal.
Against a backdrop of widespread cynicism and doubt, the lyrics of the country-inflected ballad acted as a powerful restorative to a beleaguered populace.
With a melodic hook that repeats the phrase, “You are the country, you are the nation, you will survive,” interspersed with shout-outs to the various states that make up the Union: “do you hear me, Colorado, do you hear me, California, do you hear me, Ohio?” and accompanied by stunning photography of the country’s sweeping landscapes, the song is a rousing call-to-action and a balm on an aching national psyche.
“We’ve been wanting to re-record this song for three years,” notes Mike Marvin, who together with Don Marovich and Tim Gorelangton, comprise the current Trio. Marvin, who was raised by Nick Reynolds and grew up with a ringside seat to the original Trio’s rise to superstardom, adds that the song has new relevance given the current crisis confronting the country.
“We are in a terrible cultural and societal crisis. We are in trouble and have zero choice, other than to defeat this virus and prevail,” he asserts. The song is being released as a music video dedicated to the “all the nine-to-fivers and heroic first responders” as a paean to working men and women everywhere, all the more so at this time of national crisis.
Gorelangton underscores the timeliness of SURVIVORS in the face of a life-threatening epidemic on an unprecedented scale: “When close to 1,000 Americans have died in 24 hours from COVID-19, any point of light offers hope to people desperately in need. The country needs to know it can survive this and it will.”
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