In the late '50's, up until the Beatles hit, The Kingston Trio were the biggest performing group in the country. It is a great guitar! Warner recorded his version in 1952; it was later covered by the Folksay Trio and the Tarriers. During that time, word about the Trios powerful singing and hilarious stage patter made its way down south to Los Angeles. Find out about folksinger Dave Guard: Age, What he did before fame, his family life. Shirley Collins, the English folk singer, succinctly summed up the opinion of most of the traditionalists toward the Trio: I despised them. But she did add, The audience loved them!. follow it with a book on a Hawaiian legend late this year. The sound was accessible and instantly comfortable. Mr. Shane was the lead singer on most of the group's recordings. He graduated from Stanford with a degree in economics in 1956.[3]. 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. Hawaiian culture and music played an important part in his school's educational program. on successfully pursuing their separate endeavors. and both sides were suspicious of us. (He currently oversees a version of the Kingston Trio made up of musicians who played in the band in the past.). Guard And The Calypsonians - acetate demo And In reflects Dave Guard's eclectic nature and continual search for something 67 years As 1960 dawned, the Kingston Trio were the most popular vocal group in America, but there were tensions forming in the band. This song's imagery, rhythmic drive, tasteful fills and trademark Kingston He kept insisting that all three members take time out to study the older styles, to try to make their performances more authentic. At first, the groups debut LP had only modest sales, but the Kingston Trio didnt really noticebecause by the time the LP came out the band was in the early stages of what would become an insane touring schedule. We werent folksingers, Shane stresses. We were going to have John Stewart (who replaced Guard) and George Grove (the newest member) and the rest of us sing in different combinations, a kind of retrospective.. After their run at the Purple Onion ended in December 1957, the group prepared to record their first LP. Reynolds eventually Gretchen and Dave were married in 1957, after his graduation. His daughter, Sally Guard of New York, said Saturday that her father died Friday at home in Rollinsford of lymphoma. And then a sole voice from the top of a bleacher called out Horseshit! And the whole place went crazy. and on the literary scene in a duet. hotel rooms" during the trio touring days to a retreat "for a family The stark, guitar- and banjo-driven sound was very unusual to hear on a major label. When did Bill Zorn leave the Kingston Trio? When did Dave Guard die? In late 1962 Guard moved with his family to Sydney, Australia, where he purchased a home overlooking the South Pacific Ocean at Whale Beach. Rather than soak the Trio in strings and grand orchestrations, as was the style at the time, he opted to record Shane, Reynolds and Guard essentially live in the studio. Quit partying after hours: stop being a corny ham; dont be a clown, read one of Werbers many notes to Shane from the early days. At Menlo Shane met Nick Reynolds, a hotel management major from Southern California who grew up in a musical household. 1:36: A4: Tom Dooley. Until his return to the United States in 1968, 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. Donald David Guard (October 19, 1934 March 22, 1991) was an American folk singer, songwriter, arranger and recording artist. in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. [7] The group continued to perform for six years as the Kingston Trio before disbanding in 1967, with John Stewart taking Guard's place. the Treasures of Early Irish art.". We would go see folk acts in San Francisco when they were playing, Shane says. for submitting this article to us. in recording. That first week went very well and the Kingston TrioBob Shane, Nick Reynolds and Dave Guardwere asked to stay on for another week, and then another, and then another. Their hits included Tom Dooley, The M.T.A., The Tijuana Jail, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, A Worried Man, plus many others. When I called him for this story, I was pleased to discover that he had been thinking quite a bit about that period himself. Thomas Dula, as his name was originally spelled, was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina in 1844. Guard's musical taste and banjo artistry? Bob Shane, the last surviving original member of the popular folk group the Kingston Trio and the lead singer on its million-selling ballad "Tom Dooley" and many . Nobody ever did that. . Four episodes of Dave's Place featured Judy Henske as a guest performer. It is like the Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Pickwick, 1973. One song off that LP, Tom Dooley, became a massive hit and immediately made the Kingston Trio the most sought-after musical act in America. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Contact Dave at dbgmilitaria@hotmail.co.uk or 07805 399132 FOR BOOKS ON BOMBER COMMAND We finished the first opening act and nobody is cheering; David said Father such and such said that if we did any blue material here they would turn off the lights and the sound. Then there is this silence. From the beginning, the Kingston Trio decided to avoid protest songs and material with a political bent. Guard's daughter Sally died in 2001, also from cancer. In 1956, publicist Frank Werber offered his services to Guard and his bandmates, including Reynolds at the time. During the next several years in Australia, Dave had a musical-variety television show called Dave's Place. to sing for them. The Kingston Trio were one such group, transforming folk music into a hot commodity and creating a demand -- where none had existed before -- for young men (sometimes with women) strumming acoustic guitars and banjos and singing folk songs and folk-like novelty songs in harmony. She really liked the music, but she had a soft spot for the Kingston Trio because in 1956, when she was a teenager, Dave Guard pulled her out of a wrecked car. By now, the Kingston Trio were a national phenomenon and folk songs were a national craze, particularly among younger people. Oh, yes, and he played a Vega Pete Seeger too, as you can see. "Bobby was considered the sex symbol and I was the short, little guy," Reynolds said. ", "Three Jolly Coachmen", and "Raspberries, Strawberries". Guard is survived by his mother and three children. We flew in that thing all the hell over. The Kingston Trio, Pickwick, 1972. I wanted to talk to Bob Shane about the early days of the Kingston Trio. After leaving the group, Guard started the Whiskyhill Singers and moved to Australia, where he lived until 1968 and where he was host of a television show. Area publisher, Celestial Arts of Millbrae, accepted it. endearing vocal style helped contribute--along with Bob's and Nick's formidable talents--to the success of The Why Dave Guard left Kingston Trio? fine program was broadcast February 21, 1982 on PBS and is currently Among the group's hits were "The MTA," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" Kingston Trio. Truly Fair, a song Shane learned in 1951 and sang during his Hawaiian Elvis days, was tried out, but it was found wanting and dropped from the act. And he said, What did you want to do that for? Thats exactly the way he said it. The hits kept on coming: M.T.A., A Worried Man and The Tijuana Jail all made the Top 40. Shane and Gambill replaced him with George Grove, a professionally trained singer and instrumentalist from North Carolina who had been working in Nashville as a studio musician. The crowd was pounding their feet on the bleachers and making this weird rumbling sound. On November 17, 1958, the Kingston Trios Tom Dooley hits #1 on the Billboard pop chart. I cant say it enough. We were smart enough to say when we formed the band that if there ever gets to the point where somebodys really pissed-off with the whole thing, he has the freedom to go anywhere he wants, Shane says. ''I'm very upset,'' said Nick Reynolds, a member of the . Then, go back on the Internet to this design for it. them with counterpoint and chord and vocal phrasing. On March 15, 1959, their plane developed trouble on the way to a gig at Notre Dame and started to go down. Reached in Coronado, Calif., Reynolds said he had visited Guard two months ago and he was in remission., We were talking about doing a reunion, he said. Limited to only 100 instruments, the 00-21 Kingston Trio pays tribute to the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the group and honors the life of founding member Dave Guard. Dave Guard, a founding member of the folk group Kingston Trio that helped fuel the folk music boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, has died at 56. There was a storeroom above the Purple Onion and we would spend our days up there rehearsing, five and six hours at a time, and then go downstairs in the evening to perform. KINGSTON TRIO : THE GUARD YEARS. They shake hands with psychology. Dave Guard/Up & In, Folk Era Records 1988 - courtesy of Peter Overly. keeping his home base here. From 1958 to 1964 (the year they left Capitol records), they had played thousands of shows and had released 19 LPs, five of which made it to the top spot on the Billboard charts. In the 1970s, Dave Guard recorded a live album at The Ice House in Pasadena. "We then started singing for beers," Reynolds recalled. During this period, one of the highlights for Kingston Trio fans was the reunion of all "The kids take. "Unlike February 19, 1978. The trio's newest member is George Grove. once it is downloaded. I go back to folk material. We seemed to be the only tourists in Northern Ireland when I had appendicitis. If we had the time, we really liked to go to Reno or Vegas and see the lounge acts. The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. we were told, and we heard there were radio reports for the military to check This is the lyric that evolved into the hit song of the Kingston Trio. Reynolds once said they first heard the song when a now-forgotten singer sang it during an audition at the Purple Onion. The struggling quartet crossed paths with publicist and talent agent Frank Werber, who liked them but felt that Gannons bass playing wasnt good enough. Guard tried to introduce major record companies to Pure Gabby, but met with little interest, and he shelved the project. taught in a 12-valued chain of chords with color, "as an infinite color Dave finished the writing and tried to "peddle the book Explains lead vocalist and guitarist Mike Marvin, "The three original members of The Kingston Trio were Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds. Children, go where I send thee. The rest of 1959 was a blur of recording sessions, television appearances and concerts. The Trio recorded the first version of Seasons in the Sun in 1963, but Terry Jacks had the hit version in 1974. CONCORD, N.H. -- Dave Guard, 56, a founder of the immensely popular Kingston Trio, which brought folk music from the coffee houses to mainstream America with songs such as the haunting "Tom Dooley" and the rollicking "MTA," died of lymphoma March 22 at his home in Rollinsford, N.H. The group continued to perform for six years as the Kingston Trio before disbanding in 1967, with John Stewart taking Guard's place. After leaving the group, Mr. Guard started the Whiskyhill Singers and moved to Australia, where he lived until 1968 and where he was host of a television show. Cyrus Faryar can be heard performing solo on the track "Wanderin'" and Dave Guard on "Poor Wayfarin' Stranger". The great thing was that as soon as the show was over, we would walk out into the crowd and sign autographs. The Seavers first heard it in a hotel lounge when they were on their honeymoon in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1935; they had the piano player write the lyrics and melody down so they would always remember it. After that show aired, Shane and Guard reconciled enough to begin talking about a reunion, but Guard tragically contracted lymphoma and died before the plans could come to fruition. In the summer of 1957, comedian Phyllis Diller was forced at the last minute to cancel a weeklong booking at San Franciscos Purple Onion nightclub. (Truth be told, the Beach Boys did more than just ape the Kingston Trios garb; in 1965, at Al Jardines insistence, they covered Sloop John B from the Trios first LP.). Built to be Seaworthy by SeaMonster Studios. They couldn't decide whether it was Fortunately, The Kingston Trio and Dave Guard both continued After a reportedly acrimonious meeting with Shane, Reynolds, and the Trio's business manager over the future of the Trio, Guard quit the group. 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. He retired from performing in 2004 after suffering a heart attack. retired to become an Oregon rancher of cattle, chickens and Christmas trees. an author of children's and music instruction books. So they took liberties and they gave the Kingston Trio the first Grammy ever given for Country and Western., That year they released four LPslive from the Hungry i, Stereo Concert (one of the first live albums recorded in stereo), At Large and Here We Go Again!all of which sold very well, with the last two both hitting the top of the LP charts. They became so well known that we later had our own line of Kingston Trio brand shirts. The short-sleeved, striped shirts caused a minor fashion stir in California, and even inspired the Beach Boys to emulate the look. For those of us who lost track of Dave Guard's whereabouts It all started back at Stanford, where Gretchen Ballard and The group continued to perform for six years as the Kingston Trio before disbanding in 1967, with John Stewart taking Guards place. Under contract with Capitol Records, the Trio became a huge commercial and influential success.[1]. In 1962, the Kingston Trio reached an out-of-court settlement, and to this day Tom Dooley, a song that dates back to the 1860s and was first recorded by Grayson and Whitter in 1929, 18 years before Folk Song U.S.A. was printed, bears the copyright notice Frank Warner-John A. Lomax-Alan Lomax. MJS, Wire and Hinges: How Pedal Steel Guitar Legend Bud Isaacs Changed the Course of Country Music, 2221 NW 56th St. #101, Seattle, WA 98107 | (877) 373-8273, 2016-23 Fretboard Journal. (Grayson was the great-nephew of Col. James Grayson, the man who arrested Tom Dula in the first place.) Dave Guard and The Whiskeyhill Singers recorded their first album at Henry Jacobs' studio at Sausalito, and it was released on the Capitol record label. Tom appealed the verdict and a new trial was held, which also reached a guilty verdict. His memorial service in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was attended by Bob Shane, Glen Yarbrough, the Limeliters and many other figures from the folk world. We never called ourselves folk singers; somebody else did that. Guard, whom Shane had known since both were attending high school in Shane's native Hawaii, died in 1991. Tom suggested the he and Laura elope, and on May 25, 1866, Laura packed her clothes in a bundle and went off to meet Tom in the forest. Some of the songs they came up with dated back to Shane and Guards days in Hawaii. Then in 1957, when Reynolds and Shane agreed to team up with Guard again, the group changed its name to The Kingston Trio. The sound was professional. - 1961 - Capitol Records. 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