| The Last Month of the Year | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | The Kingston Trio |
| Cover: | Thelastmonthoftheyear.jpg |
| Released: | October 3, 1960 |
| Recorded: | June 1960 |
| Studio: | Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California |
| Genre: | Folk, Christmas |
| Length: | 27:28 |
| Label: | Capitol |
| Producer: | Voyle Gilmore |
| Prev Title: | String Along |
| Prev Year: | 1960 |
| Next Title: | Make Way |
| Next Year: | 1961 |
The Last Month of the Year is an album of Christmas music by the Kingston Trio, released in 1960 (see 1960 in music). It became the first Kingston Trio album release to fall below expected sales and Capitol withdrew the album from circulation shortly after its release.[1]
The Last Month of the Year is considered their most musically ambitious and also one of the Trio's least known. It was recorded in 1960 between shows at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
Nick Reynolds stated in an interview for the liner notes of The Guard Years: "It wasn't your standard Christmas album. That's why we called it The Last Month of the Year. It was a pretty complicated little album, some very intricate stuff. Dave (Guard) brought in a lot of the arrangements with stuff like bouzouki instrumentation; Buckwheat (David Wheat, the Trio's bassist) played some wonderful gut-string guitar. We really worked hard on that one, laying down a lot of the instrumental tracks before we did the vocals, working on harmonies over and over. David (Guard) was responsible for a lot of that album, but we all brought things in... Musically, it came off very well; it just didn't sell."[1]
Sales for the album fell far below expected sales and Capitol withdrew the album from circulation shortly after its release.[1]
In his Allmusic review, critic David A. Milberg called The Last Month of the Year "An essential part of any Christmas album collection, these are true Christmas folk songs, from spirituals to Old English rounds."