34 Facts About Dave Guard

Donald David Guard was an American folk singer, songwriter, arranger and recording artist.

Dave Guard was born in San Francisco and went to Punahou School in Honolulu in what was then the pre-statehood US Territory of Hawaii.

Dave Guard kept the group together after Reynolds and Shane left, changing the name of the Calypsonians to the Kingston Quartet.

Dave Guard spent his early years first in San Francisco, and then his junior high school and high school years in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.

Dave Guard grew up hearing the soft vocal melodies and strummed guitars of Hawaiian music.

Dave Guard was particularly attracted to the unique rhythmic sounds of finger-picked slack-key ukulele and guitar music masterfully performed by the many of his neighbors and beach boys.

Dave Guard attended Punahou School, a private school established in 1849 by Hawaii's New England missionary families during junior high school and high school.

Dave Guard participated in sports, and was a member of Punahou's ROTC battalion.

Dave Guard left Punahou at the end of his junior year, completing his final year of high school at the Menlo School, a private prep school that helped him prepare for acceptance and matriculation at nearby Stanford University.

At Stanford, Dave Guard was a member of the Beta Chi chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity.

Dave Guard graduated from Stanford with a degree in economics in 1956.

When Shane left the Calypsonians and returned to Hawaii to work in his family's business, Dave Guard added two members, bassist Joe Gannon and vocalist Barbara Bogue, making the Calypsonians a quartet.

Later, when Reynolds left the Calypsonians, Dave Guard replaced him with Don MacArthur to keep the quartet format intact, but by that time the national interest in calypso rhythms was waning, while Dave Guard's musical growth was reaching out from calypso as well.

Still appreciating Caribbean rhythms and vocals, but given his more eclectic folk music interests, Dave Guard changed the name of the four Calypsonians to the Kingston Quartet.

The Kingston Trio with Dave Guard recorded for Capitol Records; subsequent iterations of the group managed first by Werber and Shane and later by Shane alone recorded for Decca Records, Folk Era, Silverwolf, Pair, Collector's Choice Music, CEMA, and MCA, and had many hit songs in its initial ten-year run.

Dave Guard was aware that among the Kingston Trio, he was the only one who could read music and who had some understanding of music theory; his partners basically played by rote, and the three of them sang in simple three-part harmony.

In 1961, shortly after leaving the Trio, Dave Guard formed a new group, The Whiskeyhill Singers, with Judy Henske, Cyrus Faryar, and Kingston Trio bassist David "Buck" Wheat.

Judy Henske was eventually replaced by Liz Seneff, but the Whiskeyhill Singers were disbanded in late 1962 after Dave Guard left for Australia.

In late 1962 Dave Guard moved with his family to Sydney, Australia, where he purchased a home overlooking the South Pacific Ocean at Whale Beach.

Dave Guard performed both under his own name, anonymously and under an alias as a supporting musician and vocalist on Australian recording sessions with, among others, Lionel Long, The Twiliters, The Green Hill Singers, Tina Date, and The Tolmen.

Dave Guard anonymously recorded many sound clips for radio and TV commercials.

In 1964, Dave Guard became the folk music consultant on the ABC-TV program Jazz Meets Folk.

Dave Guard hosted his own ABC-TV national variety show, Dave's Place, on Sunday nights for 13 weeks in late 1965.

Four episodes of Dave Guard's Place featured Judy Henske as a guest performer.

Until his return to the United States in 1968, Dave Guard gave guitar lessons and, with the help of his wife, Gretchen, wrote a book, Colour Guitar, describing a unique guitar teaching method relating music theory to a 12-valued chain of chords with color.

Always a folk music eclectic, Dave Guard attempted to publicize the slack-key sounds of Hawaiian folk guitar.

Dave Guard worked closely in Honolulu with slack-key guitar icon Gabby Pahinui to record and produce Pure Gabby, an album of classic Hawaiian melodies played with slack key tunings.

Dave Guard tried to introduce major record companies to Pure Gabby, but met with little interest, and he shelved the project.

In 1981, Dave Guard reunited with Shane and Reynolds for a PBS fundraising concert and program entitled "The Kingston Trio and Friends Reunion".

Dave Guard made occasional concert appearances with John Stewart, his replacement in the Trio who was by then a respected and successful solo performer.

Dave Guard produced the video Workout for Equestrians with Ingrid Gsottschneider for Golden Arrow Enterprises.

Dave Guard's backing group on this album was The Modern Folk Quartet, which included former Whiskeyhill Singer Cyrus Faryar.

Dave Guard was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1988, while he was living in an apartment on the property of Rick and Ingrid Shaw in Rollinsford.

Dave Guard was survived by his mother Marjorie, ex-wife Gretchen and three children Sally, Catherine, and Tom.