Nick Reynolds -- the Short One

When I was growing up, my parents' record collection was about half Kingston Trio albums.

My sisters and I are the only people I know who can sing every song on the group's Christmas album Last Month of the Year (how many Americans do you know who've even heard the carols "Somerset Gloucestershire Wassail" or "Mary Child"?).

To us, Nick Reynolds was known as the short one, with the kind of dorky hair (remember, this is the 60s, long before George Clooney brought that haircut back). Sadly, Reynolds died Wednesday at the age of 75 in San Diego.

I think I'll spend the day at work listening to the Kingston Trio, including the wonderful set of discs I picked up a few years ago, The Capitol Years. It has many of the songs I remember, plus a number of previously unreleased ones, including a version of the wonderful Irish freedom fighter song Roddy McCorley, which chokes me up every time I hear it.