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POPULAR FOLK MUSIC TODAY, SPRING 1991

Personally Dave Guard was only the person who phoned occasionally saying "Hello, this is David Guard. Is Allan there?" to which I always humbly responded, "Oh, yes, yes. Hold on a moment and I'll get him for you.' Nevertheless, his spirit touched me and my life in ways that I can only begin to understand. I have learned about persistence, dedication, attitude and music through Dave because of his love for those things and others love for him. Thank you.

-- lan Shaw

Dave was my hero and my friend since 1959. His friendship, his wit and his spirit are as unmeasurable as is this loss. There are no words for this.

-- John Stewart

I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that John Stewart was in town last night.

The highlight of the evening for me, and I'm sure others was when he paused a bit and said "The Kingston Trio was a great group, and Dave Guard will be greatly missed." He then proceeded to sing "Fast Freight" and I got shivers running up my spine. His rendition was superb and knowing it was a tribute to Dave made it even more impressive. We had all hoped he would mention Dave and wondered if he would do a special song. This one could not have been any more special. It's the first Guard solo recorded and a real masterpiece. I would call it a loving tribute to a great entertainer.

-- Don Stearns

Dave, I feel as if I am saying to the sky, look how beautiful and blue you are, when in a sense the sky can't see itself and I have only human words to use anyway.

I cannot begin to express how much I admired you and how honored I was to have had your approval. I speak for many. We loved you very much.

-- Michael Smith

There are so many things I could say about Dave, but I think the main thing for me was his way of always getting me back to what was really important, the enjoyment of life.

It was emulating Dave that first got me to pick up the 5-string banjo. Long before I first met him, he was a big part of my life. But it wasn't just me. The original Kingston Trio had a magic that was so powerful it changed the way that music was going. When Dave left the Kingston Trio, he took a lot of that magic with him.

Although I'd met Dave a number of times over the years, it wasn't until we got going planning the reunion tour that I really got to know him. I'll never forget one day sitting in my kitchen with Dave when my 3 year old daughter came in singing one of those songs that kids sing - just kind of making it up as she went along. She went up to Dave and began singing It to him, and all of a sudden he was singing 'it with her. I don't know where the words came from or how he knew them, and neither did she. The look on her face to have this adult singing along with her on her song Is one of the neatest mental pictures that I have of Dave. I'll never forget it.

I'll also never forget the last five or six months of Dave's life. I was going through a lot of pain then, physical and emotional. I had a slipped disc in my back and the pain had me immobilized. I was also going through a divorce and the mental pain of that is indescribable. This was after Dave had gone into relapse and was dying, and he knew it. But he knew what I was going through and he would call me - to see how I was doing! We'd talk for as long as he was able to and he would tell me things that would make it all seem not so bad. And he would send me things - books, records, articles from the paper on things he thought I'd find interesting - all to cheer me up and take my mind off my problems! For a couple of months there I was in really bad shape, physically and emotionally, and Dave pulled me through.

I really miss him. I think that people continue to live on through their attributes. Part of what Dave was is now a part of me, and I'm a much better person because of it.

-- Nick Heyl

I was saddened to hear about Dave Guard. He was the only member of the 6 main Trio members who I never saw perform. (I "discovered" the Trio during the Stewart era.) Maybe a reunion tour is needed more than ever now -- in Dave's memory.

-- Tom Hirchburg

I miss him immensely. He'll always be a brother to me. He had one of the sharpest minds I met in my life but sometimes it seemed that he had the curse of being smarter than was necessary. I mean that as a positive statement about him - when you talked to Dave his mind worked so fast that his thoughts were way ahead of his words so you wouldn't understand him unless you knew him real well, which I did. I already miss him tremendously even though we didn't spend much time together the last few years. One of the real treasures of my life was knowing him, working with him, being with him. He was one of the most marvelous people I ever knew in my life. I could go on and on, but it would begin to get maudlin.

-- Nick Reynolds