Dave Guard

During the folk revival of the late fifties and early sixties, Dave Guard emerged as a significant presence, above all through his role in the Kingston Trio and briefly as the focal point of Dave Guard's Whiskeyhill Singers. Alongside Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, he belonged to the Trio's original lineup and contributed original material, co-authoring the 1959 hit single "A Worried Man." In 1961 he departed the still-successful ensemble—John Stewart stepped in—to address concerns over financial management and to explore alternate musical avenues. Those interests led him to Dave Guard & the Whiskeyhill Singers, whose sole Capitol release appeared in 1962 and featured future noted folk and rock singer Judy Henske, Cyrus Faryar (later of the Modern Folk Quartet and subsequently a solo singer-songwriter), and David Wheat (who had previously served the Kingston Trio as a bass accompanist). The album closely resembled the Trio's style except for the addition of a female vocalist and achieved little commercial traction.

A second album by Dave Guard & the Whiskeyhill Singers remained unreleased before the group disbanded in 1963. Guard thereafter maintained a minimal musical presence, though he contributed kalimba and tambourine to Tim Buckley's 1967 album Goodbye and Hello, produced by Jerry Yester, then the husband of Guard's ex-bandmate Judy Henske. Guard died of lymphatic cancer in 1991. Two previously unreleased 1957 demos by his pre-Kingston Trio outfit, Dave Guard & the Calypsonians, surface on the Kingston Trio box set The Capitol Years, which also contains one track by Dave Guard & the Whiskeyhill Singers.