Barry McGuire

The emergence of Bob Dylan sparked a wave of folk-rooted protest singers throughout the early and middle years of the 1960s, among them Barry McGuire. McGuire was born in Oklahoma City in 1935 and had settled in New York City by the early 1960s, when he aligned himself with the folk-revival collective the New Christy Minstrels. Serving as the group’s principal vocalist, he contributed to multiple releases and helped shape their breakthrough single “Green, Green,” a song he co-wrote. Record producer Lou Adler and singer-songwriter P.F. Sloan soon took an interest, leading the guitarist and vocalist to exit the New Christy Minstrels and pursue a solo path under contract with Adler’s Dunhill Records. McGuire’s first solo album, The Barry McGuire Album, appeared in 1963, yet it was not until two years afterward that he registered a major success with the Sloan-penned “Eve of Destruction.” That track ascended to the summit of the U.S. charts—reaching number three in the U.K.—and anchored his second long-player, Barry McGuire Featuring Eve of Destruction. He formed a lasting friendship with the Mamas & the Papas, another Adler-managed act that alluded to him in several lyrics; further solo outings such as This Precious Time and The World’s Last Private Citizen followed, though none yielded singles comparable in reach to “Eve.” By the early 1970s McGuire had abandoned folk music and reemerged as a Christian and gospel artist, joining the Myrrh roster and delivering such notable releases as Seeds in 1973, Lighten Up in 1975, and the live set To the Bride in 1982, together with many additional recordings. In the mid-1980s he suspended his musical activities and relocated to New Zealand with his wife, remaining there until 1990 while collaborating with the antipoverty organization World Vision. Following his return he resumed issuing albums, among them El Dorado, Let’s Tend God’s Earth, Adventures on Son Mountain, and Journey to Bible Times, before joining forces with fellow gospel singer and guitarist Terry Talbot to form the duo Talbot McGuire.