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The New Christy Minstrels (officially known as The New Christy Minstrels®, Still Under the Direction of Randy Sparks) is an American large-ensemble folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1961. From their beginnings as prominent figures in the early-1960s U.S. folk revival, the group recorded over 20 albums and had several hits, including "Green, Green", "Saturday Night", "Today", "Denver", and "This Land Is Your Land". Their 1962 debut album, ''Presenting The New Christy Minstrels'' won a Grammy Award and sat in the ''Billboard'' charts for two years.〔 The group sold millions of records and were in demand at concerts and on television shows.〔 They also launched the musical careers of several musicians, including Kenny Rogers, Gene Clark, Kim Carnes, and Barry McGuire.〔 ==History== The New Christy Minstrels were formed by singer/guitarist Randy Sparks in 1961. Sparks had been a solo musician in the late 1950s, mixing folk music with Broadway. In 1960 he formed the Randy Sparks Trio with his wife, Jackie Miller, and Nick Woods, but soon realized he wanted a larger group. At the time folk music was very popular and choral groups like the Norman Luboff Choir and Les Baxter's Balladeers began incorporating it in their repertoires. Sparks created a 14 voice ensemble, The New Christy Minstrels, by combining his trio with another trio, The Inn Group (John Forsha, Karol Dugan and Jerry Yester), a quartet, The Fairmount Singers, and banjo player Billy Cudmore, folk-blues singer Terry Cudmore, folk singer Dolan Ellis and singer/guitarist Art Podell.〔〔 Large commercial folk groups did not exist in those days, and The New Christy Minstrels burst onto the folk scene with "a barrage of color-coordinated blazers, starched petticoats, choreographed grins, and stage makeup."〔 The group's name was derived from Christy's Minstrels, a blackface group formed by Philadelphia-born showman Edwin Pearce Christy in 1842. Sparks modeled his relationship to his band after legendary composer Stephen Foster, who had given many of his compositions to the original Minstrels to help popularize them.〔 In April 1962 the group, reduced to ten members after the early departure of The Fairmount Singers, recorded their debut album, ''Presenting The New Christy Minstrels'' for Columbia Records (CL1872/CS8672).〔 It won a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Chorus〔 and sat in the ''Billboard'' 200 charts for two years, peaking at number 19.〔 The album included Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", which entered the pop singles charts in December 1962.〔 The success of ''Presenting'' resulted in the group being booked on ''The Andy Williams Show'', a television variety show, for its 1962–63 season. During this time several members left the group and were replaced by others. Forsha, Dugan and Yester left to pursue their own careers, with Yester later joining the Modern Folk Quartet. Singer/guitarists Barry McGuire and Barry Kane of Barry & Barry, vocalist Peggy Connelly, singer/banjoist Larry Ramos, and Clarence Treat on upright bass joined the group. Connelly was soon replaced by another vocalist, Gayle Caldwell. Sparks remained at the helm of the group as both director and arranger. The new lineup began playing regularly at The Troubadour in Los Angeles in mid-1962, and their style of performance was similar to those by the 1930s big bands and the 1950s English traditional-jazz ensembles. Some songs were performed by the full group and others by duos and trios within the group.〔〔 With this new lineup they released their second album, ''The New Christy Minstrels In Person'' in February 1963 (CL2141/CS8741), which had been recorded live at The Troubadour in September 1962.〔 In January 1963 the new lineup made their first studio album, ''The New Christy Minstrels Tell Tall Tales! (Legends and Nonsense)''. By now the group's fame had grown considerably after their appearances on ''The Andy Williams Show'', and they received "a raft of enthusiastic reviews".〔 In April 1963 the group recorded another studio album called ''Ramblin (CL2055/CS8855) which featured "Green, Green", a McGuire/Sparks composition that became the group's first hit single, peaking at number three on the Adult Contemporary Charts.〔 "Green, Green" sold over one million copies in 1963, and was awarded a gold disc.〔 Later that same year, Trini Lopez recorded that same hit song of the Minstrels for his 2nd album at P.J's for Reprise records (R6103/RS6103). In May 1963, Sparks stopped touring with the group to focus on a club he had established in Los Angeles called Ledbetters, and a new group he had formed, The Back Porch Majority.〔 He passed the role of director and arranger of The New Christy Minstrels's live performances onto McGuire, who had become the "star" of the group after singing on their hit "Green, Green". Soon after McGuire's promotion, Ellis left and was replaced by Gene Clark, who featured prominently on the group's next few records. But in early 1964 Clark left to join Jim McGuinn and David Crosby in the Jet Set, and later The Byrds. Clark was replaced by Paul Potash. The group's two female singers, Miller, and Caldwell also left and were replaced by Karen Gunderson and Ann White.〔 In early 1964 Sparks was contracted to create a film score for a comedy, ''Advance to the Rear'', featuring Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens. The corresponding soundtrack performed by The New Christy Minstrels was released in May 1964 as ''Today'' (CL2159/CS8959). It was the first complete soundtrack ever made in the folk music style. The score is notable for the hit standard "Today", which was written by Sparks. "Today" reached number four on the Adult Contemporary Charts and 17 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.〔 In the summer of 1964, The New Christy Minstrels were featured in the television series ''Ford Presents the New Christy Minstrels'', a weekly musical variety show sponsored by the Ford Motor Company and broadcast as a summer replacement for ''Hazel''. Each episode had an outdoor setting, with two filmed at the 1964 New York World's Fair and three at various locations in Los Angeles, California. A guest comedian appeared with the group in each episode. ''Ford Presents the New Christy Minstrels'' ran for five weeks, from August 6 to September 10, 1964, airing on NBC from 9:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday throughout its run.〔McNeil, Alex, ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, p. 595.〕〔Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, Sixth Edition'', New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, ISBN 0-345-39736-3, p. 736.〕 After the group toured Europe in early 1965,〔("New Christy Minstrels to Start First European Trek in January" ), ''Billboard'', August 8, 1964〕 McGuire left to embark on a solo career, and this spelled the end of the original New Christy Minstrels. Now under the direction of Greif and Garris the group moved towards a variety act, doing "novelty and pop tunes" and a little comedy, making them closer to the 19th century Christy's Minstrels from whom the group's name was derived.〔 Reflecting this shift, they had a ''Billboard'' Top 100 hit later in 1965 with a cover of "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from the Disney film ''Mary Poppins''.〔 Regular group membership changes continued, often with each new tour. In 1965 Kane was replaced by Bill Teague, and Treat was replaced by Skiles and Henderson, a comedy duo that broadened The New Christy Minstrels's stage act. Later that year Woods was replaced by Rusty Evans, and in early 1966 Larry Ramos left to join The Association and was replaced by Mike Settle. Towards the end of 1966 Podell, Gunderson and White were replaced by Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes and Karen Black. Settle and Rogers later left to form The First Edition.〔 As a duet Carnes and Rogers reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 with "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" in May 1980. They performed during Super Bowl IV at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans in 1970. They were introduced as "young Americans who demonstrate – with guitars." The New Christy Minstrels continued under the management of Greif and Garris until 1991, making several more records (except between 1971 and 1975 when they were then inactive), including a folk-pop album of Motown hits, ''On Tour Through Motortown'' (1968). In 1976 the group reconstituted itself for a short while as a pop group to make a new album, ''The Great Soap Opera Themes'',〔 and then in 1978 they began performing at resort hotels.〔 Randy Sparks, who had spent more than thirty years as Burl Ives' writer and opening act in concert, found himself with time on his hands after Ives' death in 1995, and he sought to rebuild the group he had founded. He leased the entity from Greif and Garris to begin the experimentation, then eventually bought it back. His long-time friend Fats Johnson had quietly trademarked the world-famous name, and then sold it to Randy Sparks, who is preserving the quality of the signature sound of The New Christy Minstrels®, and the body of work of Randy Sparks' songs through New Christy Minstrels Foundation, a non profit Foundation established in 2009. The Mission of the Foundation is to show that music is more than something that vibrates your car, through free-to-schools live concerts. www.newchristyminstrelsfoundation.org The New Christy Minstrels® volunteer to perform live concerts in schools across the country around their paid public concerts to give the gift of music to this and generations to come. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The New Christy Minstrels」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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