Dave Guard

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Dave Guard
Dave Guard (left) as part of the Kingston Trio in 1957
Background information
Birth name	Donald David Guard
Born	October 19, 1934 San Francisco, California, United States
Died	March 22, 1991 (aged 56) Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States
Genres	Folk neofolk world music
Instruments	banjo guitar
Years active	1955–91
Labels	Capitol
Formerly of	The Kingston Trio The Whiskeyhill Singers

Donald David Guard (October 19, 1934 – March 22, 1991) was an American folk singer, songwriter, arranger and recording artist. Along with Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, he was one of the founding members of the Kingston Trio.

Guard was born in San Francisco and went to Punahou School in Honolulu in what was then the pre-statehood U.S. Territory of Hawaii. Upon completion 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 an undergraduate at Stanford, Guard started a pickup group with Reynolds and Shane. Guard called his group Dave Guard and the Calypsonians, 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, the group changed its name to the Kingston Trio. Under contract with Capitol Records, the Trio became a huge commercial and influential success.^[1]