Two years before the release of Once Upon a Time in 1969, the Kingston Trio disbanded in 1967 following a two-week farewell engagement at San Francisco's Hungry i, the nightclub at which they had started their rise to prominence a decade earlier.

John Stewart began a solo career, Nick Reynolds retired from the music business and, after a short-lived solo career, Bob Shane created a new group, The New Kingston Trio.

The first configuration of this new group lasted approximately three years and consisted of Shane, Pat Horine, and Jim Connor; a second troupe including Shane, Bill Zorn, and Roger Gambill toured from 1973 to 1976 before Shane bought the rights to the Kingston Trio name outright and assembled a new group with Gambill and George Grove.

The songs on The Lost Masters were culled from studio tapes Horine found while unpacking boxes in storage at his home.

The music has a lingering early-1960s folk earnestness, but it also displays a good sense of modern production and aesthetic sensibilities....