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Dave Guard

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Dave Guard

Dave Guard  (19 October 1934 - 22 March 1991) American Folk Singer, Songwriter, Arranger and Recording Artist. Along with Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane were the original founding members of The Kingston Trio.  Guard was educated in Honolulu at Punahou School in what was then the pre-statehood U.S. Territory of Hawaii.  Upon completing of his final year of high school in 1952 at Menlo School, a private prep school in Menlo Park, California, he matriculated at nearby Stanford University, graduating in 1957 with a degree in Economics. While at Stanford Guard pledged to and was a brother in the national Greek social fraternity Sigma Nu.

While an undergraduate at Stanford, Guard started a pickup group with Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane.  Guard called his group Dave Guard and the Calypsonians [1], with a Weavers-style signature sound that was principally two guitars, a banjo, and rollicking vocals.  Guard kept the group together after Reynolds and Shane left, changing the name of the Calypsonians to The Kingston Quartet.  Then in 1957, when Reynolds and Shane agreed to team up with Guard again, he changed the name of the Kingston Quartet to The Kingston Trio.  Under contract with Capitol Records, Guard's Trio became a huge, amazingly successful commercial success.

Guard is considered to be a very important figure of the folk music scene of both the 1950s and 1960s.  The Kingston Trio is credited with creating and popularizing eclectic folk and neo-folk music, a form that is now being called "world music".

Early life, family,and education

Guard spent his early years first in San Francisco, and then his junior high school and high school years in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.  Living close to the beaches and the night life of the city's Waikiki section, Guard grew up hearing the soft vocal melodies and strummed guitars of Hawaiian music.  Guard was particularly attracted to the unique rythmic sounds of finger-picked slack-key ukulele and guitar music masterfully performed by the many of his "local boy" polyasian neighbors and beach boys, but virtually impossible for Dave and other haoles like him to master.

Guard attended Punahou School [2] during his junior high school and high school years.[3]  Hawaiian culture and music played an important part in his school's educational program.  Along with all his other classmates [4] Guard early on learned to play Hawaii's ubiquitous ukulele in a 7th grade junior high school music class required of all students.  It was in that class that Punahou's young 7th graders like Guard (and his future Kingston Trio partner-to-be Bobby Schoen) learned the basics of playing the ukulele.  The fingerboard and frets, tuning to GCEA ("My Dog Has Fleas"), basic C-chords, and simple strumming were all part of the school's required ukulele music program.  It is very possible that the ukulele was Guard's initial introduction to stringed instruments, from which he went on to become an accomplished musician playing the acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, banjo, mandolin, and the other instruments that were fundamental to what eventually became recognized as "The Kingston Trio sound".[5]

Guard was an all-around good student, helpful, participated in sports, and was a member of Punahou's ROTC battalion. In his junior year he participated in musical skits along with a number of other classmates who, like himself, had by that time also had become accomplished musicians.  Guard left Punahou at the end of his junior year, completing his final year of high school at Menlo School[6], a private prep school that helped him prepare for acceptance and matriculation at nearby Stanford University.

Military Service

Guard was subject to the provisions of the Universal Military Training and Selective Service Act of 1951, and presumably registered with his local Selective Service office when he came of age in that year.  Under the provisions of the Act, Guard would have been required to serve not less than two years on active duty in the military, followed by six years of duty in the Reserves.  Many of his classmates received college deferments, but joined college Army and Navy ROTC units, and upon graduation received officer commissions.  Others in Guard's class enlisted, served three years on active duty, and fulfilled the remainder of their military service obligation in the Reserves.  While Guard most likely received the standard college deferment that most (male) college students received, there is no indication that Guard spent any time in any branch of the military after his graduation from Stanford.

Professional life and accomplishments (1955 - 1961)

When Schoen left the Calypsonians and returned to Hawaii to work in his family's business. Guard added two additional members, bassist Joe Gannon and vocalist Barbara Bogue making the Calypsonians a quartet.  Later, when Reynolds also left the Calypsonians, Guard replaced him with Don McArthur to keep the quartet format intact, but by that time the national interest in calypso rhythms was waning while 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, Guard changed the name of the four Calypsonians to The Kingston Quartet.

The Kingston Trio

In 1956 a new publicist in the area, Frank Werber, offered his services to Guard.  Guard accepted Werber's offer, and shortly thereafter, McArthur, then Gannon and Bogue, left the Quartet.  Guard contacted his former Calypsonian members Reynolds and Schoen asking them to form a group with him again, which they readily agreed to do.  In 1957, back again as a trio as in their previous college days, Guard changed group's name to The Kingston Trio.  In the process, Schoen began using the stage name "Shane", the more recognizable and pronouncable phonetic equivalent of his family surname, "Schoen".

With material supplied by Reynolds, under Guard's musical arrangements, direction and song writing ability, the Kingston Trio quickly became a success.  Guard, Shane and Reynolds worked well together. In addition to developing the characteristic "Kingston Trio sound" of the group's two guitars and a banjo, success came to the group from Guard's musical arrangements and renditions of folk and Irish ballads, Shane's talent for style, performance, and his innate knowledge of what pleased audiences, and with Reynold's taking on the management of the group's logistics.

The Kingston Trio, and its successor under Bob Shane, The New Kingston Trio, recorded on such labels as Capitol Records, Folk Era, Silverwolf, Pair, Collector's Choice Music, CEMA, and MCA, and had many hit songs in their eleven year history.  The Kingston Trio's many songs include "Tom Dooley," "A Worried Man," "Hard Travelin'," "Tijuana Jail," "Reverend Mr. Black," "Sloop John B.," "Scotch And Soda," "Merry Minuet," "Hard, Ain't It Hard," "Zombie Jamboree," "M.T.A.", "Three Jolly Coachmen," and "Raspberries, Strawberries."

Guard's break with the Trio

But Guard began to realize that pleasing audiences with the Kingston Trio sound combined with rollicking lyrics and stage banter was becoming a rigid, unchanging, but highly successful format.  So much so that imitators of the Trio format were springing up all over the place.  Guard was also aware that among the three 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 what could only be called "barroom harmony".  With help from the Trio's bassist and musicologist 'Buck' Wheat, Guard embarked on another one of his self-education programs in learning more about harmony, and becoming more and more disenchanted with what appeared to him to be a lack of willingness or effort to "improve" on the part of his partners.

By late 1960 Guard's frustration and discontent with his partners, combined with an alleged embezzelment of the group's finances, had reached a point where he no longer wanted to work with Reynolds and Shane. Giving his partners notice that he intended to leave the Trio, and unwilling to cause the group he had founded to disband, Guard agreed to stay on with the Trio until his personal commitments were completed, and until Shane and Reynolds were able to find a suitable replacement for him.  By early 1961 Shane and Reynolds had found a replacement for Guard, [7]; and after a reportedly acrimonious meeting with Shane, Reynolds, and the Trio's business manager [8] over the future of the Trio, Guard quit the group.[9]  The Trio continued to perform for five years as the Kingston Trio before disbanding in 1967, with John Stewart taking Guard's place.

Post "Trio" accomplishments (1961-1978)

The Whiskeyhill Singers

In 1961, shortly after leaving the Trio, Guard formed a new group, The Whiskeyhill Singers, with Judy Henske, Cyrus Faryar, and Kingston Trio bassist David "Buck" Wheat. They toured and released an album and were asked to perform several folk songs on the Academy Award winning soundtrack of "How the West Was Won". Their strong sound voices can be heard on The Erie Canal, 900 miles, The Ox Driver, Raise A Ruckus Tonight. Guard performed solo on the tracks Wanderin' and Poor Wayfarin' Stranger, very soulful and tender.

The Singer's new group broke up in 1962, after recording one album for the Capitol record label and a second that was never released.  After the breakup of his group, Guard did a final, solo album, Up & In, which received mixed reviews.  Over the years Guard worked with a number of people, including Henske, Faryar, Tim Buckley, and David White.

Dave's Place

In late 1962 Guard moved with his family to Sydney, Australia.  There he hosted a national TV variety show called Dave's Place.  Until his return to the United States in 1968, Guard also 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.[10].  Guard's relationship with the Trio remained strained while he was in Australia.  According to Guard, while he was in Australia Reynolds and Shane never contacted him, and he never heard any of their albums.[11]

In 1967 Guard sold his 24% interest in the Kingston Trio to Shane, giving Shane the right to call his group The Kingston Trio.  Following his return from Australia 1968 and his wife's 1970 graduation from Stanford with a degree in Art, Guard and his wife collaborated in researching, writing, and publishing a book on the ancient Irish folk tale Deirdre of the Sorrows, followed by a second book about a 400-year old Hawaiian folk tale.[12]

Pure Gabby

After the breakup of the Singers in 1961 Guard had returned to Hawaii.  Always a folk music eclectic, Guard attempted to publicize the slack-key sounds of Hawaiian folk guitar.   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.  Guard tried to interest major record companies with Pure Gabby, but met with little interest, and Guard shelved the project.  In 1978, ten years after his return from Australia, at the urging of Singer colleague Cyrus Faryar who had heard Guard's Pure Gabby tapes, Guard contacted Hula Records of Honolulu about Pure Gabby, who quickly agreed to take the recordings and distribute the album.[13]

The Mystery Years (1978 - 1990)

Guard dropped out of the public eye in the years between 1978 and 1990.  Little is known about his activities during that time, giving rise to the term "the mystery years" of Guard's life.  What is known, however, is that in addition to writing and recording, Guard also found time to produce the video Workout for Equestrians with Ingrid Gsottschneider for Golden Arrow Enterprises [14]

During the '80's Guard continued to make solo performances, along with several "reunions" of the old Kingston Trio.

Dave's Final Years

Guard had contracted lymphatic cancer sometime after he moved to Rollinsford, New Hampshire.  In failing health, on March 22, 1991, at age 56, he finally succumbed to the debilitating effects of the cancer.  His passing was noted and memorialized by the many good friends he had made and those he had helped both in and outside of the music industry during the ensuing years. In 2000 The Kingston Trio was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

He was survived by his former wife Gretchen, their children, Sally, Catherine and Tom, and Guard's mother, Marjorie. [15]

Discography

Dave Guard & The Calyposonians

  • Run Joe 1957 (Capitol)
  • Fast Freight 1957 (Capitol)

The Kingston Trio

File:Hungryic.jpg
...from the Hungry i, 1959
File:KingstonTrio AtLargeb.jpg
At Large, 1959
  • The Kingston Trio 1958 (Capitol)
  • from the Hungry i 1959 (Capitol)
  • Stereo Concert 1959 (Capitol)
  • The Kingston Trio At Large 1959 (Capitol)
  • Here We Go Again 1959 (Capitol)
  • Sold Out 1960 (Capitol)
  • String Along 1960 (Capitol)
  • The Last Month of the Year 1960 (Capitol)
  • The Kingston Trio Sings for 7-UP 1960 (TV commercial)
  • Make Way 1961 (Capitol)
  • Goin' Places 1961 (Capitol)
  • College Concert 1962 (Capitol)
  • Live At Newport 1994 (Capitol)
  • The Kingston Trio and Friends Reunion 1994 (DVD)
  • The Kingston Trio Capitol Years 1995 (Capitol)
  • The Capitol Collector Series 1998 (Capitol)
  • The Best of Kingston Trio vol 3 (Capitol)

Top 40 Hit Singles

  • Tom Dooley 1958 (Capitol) #1 Gold hit record
  • The Tijuana Jail 1959 (Capitol) #12
  • M.T.A. 1959 (Capitol) #15
  • A Worried Man 1959 (Capitol) #20
  • El Matador 1960 (Capitol) #32
  • Bad Man Blunder 1960 (Capitol) #37

The Whiskeyhill Singers

  • Dave Guard & The Whiskeyhill Singers 1962 (Capitol)
  • Whiskeyhill Singers 2nd Album (unreleased) (1962)
  • How The West Was Won: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 1963 (MGM)
  • The Kingston Trio Capitol Years 1995 (Capitol)
File:How The West Was Won screenshot.png
A scene from How the West Was Won

.

Dave's Place Group

  • Dave's Place 1965 (ABC)

Solo Career

  • Up & In 1988 (Capitol) Dave Guard
  • Pure Gabby 1978 (Hula) Gabby Pahinui / Producer

Composer

  • All My Sorrows (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • Banua (Traditional (Arr by Dave Guard))
  • Bay Of Mexico (Traditional (Arr by Dave & Gretchen Guard))
  • Blow Ye Winds
  • Bonnie Hielan' Laddie (with Joe Hickerson)
  • Buddy Better Get On Down The Line (with Jane Bowers)
  • Bye Bye Thou Little Tiny Child
  • Coast of California (with Jane Bowers)
  • Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies (with Gretchen Guard)
  • Coplas (Traditional (Arr by Dave Guard))
  • Corey Corey (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • Coventry Carol (Bye Bye Thou Little Tiny Child)
  • Dodi Li (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • Don't Weep Mary (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • Dorie' (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • Farewell Adelita (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • Getaway John
  • Go Where I Send Thee (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • Goober Peas
  • Gue' Gue (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • Haul Away
  • The Hunter (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • Little Maggie
  • Oh, Cindy (with Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds & Frank Werber)
  • Oh, Yes, Oh (with Gretchen Guard)
  • Pay Me Money Down
  • Sail Away Ladies
  • Scotch and Soda
  • Senora (with Jane Bowers)
  • Sing We Noel
  • Santy Anno
  • Somerset Glouchestershire Wasail (with Erich Schwandt)
  • Three Jolly Coachmen
  • When I Was Young (with Jane Bowers)
  • When The Saints Go Marching In (Traditional, Arr. by Dave Guard)
  • With You My Johnny (with Bob Shane & Nick Reynolds)
  • You're Gonna Miss Me (with Mike Seeger, Tom Paley & John Cohen)
  • You Don't Knock
  • A Worried Man (with Tom Glazer)

References

  1. ^ Quite often associated with Trinidadian music styles and singers, the term "calypsonian" is much broader, and more often is used to describe Trinidadian political activities
  2. ^ A private school established in 1849 by Hawaii's New England missionary families.
  3. ^ at that time Punahou School was organized as an elementary school, a Junior Academy (grades 7 through 9), and a Senior Academy (grades 10 through 12).  Each of the two lower subdivisions had classrooms in their own separate buildings, while the Senior Academy students had classes in several buildings on the sprawling Punahou campus.
  4. ^ Including Bob Schoën
  5. ^ The ukulele class clearly made an impact on Guard's classmate Bob Schoen, who during the next four years progressed steadily from the 4-string ukulele to the less toy-like and more professional appearing baritone uke, on to the tenor guitar, and finally to the 6-string acoustic guitar.
  6. ^ Menlo Park, California
  7. ^ John Stewart
  8. ^ Frank Werber
  9. ^ In Frank Shane's (no relation to Bob Shane) "Coffee House", at http://www.folkmusicarchives.org/coffeehse.htm
  10. ^ Mildred Hamilton, San Francisco Sundary Examiner and Chronicle, February 19, 1978
  11. ^ from "Kingston Trio on Record", as reprinted in Popular Folk Music Today, Spring 1991.
  12. ^ Hale-Mano: A Legend of Old Hawai'i
  13. ^ Pure Gabby liner notes: A from the producer on how this record came to be.
  14. ^ Bruce Eder, How The West Was Won (soundtrack) liner notes.
  15. ^ Punahou School class of 1952 50th reunion classmate biographies.
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