 Why would I want to add to all that is known about my father?
His music and humor said a lot
but I can further shape of the already three dimensional man with some more details. I regret
having never recorded an interview but I did ask him a lot of questions while growing up and
he answered them well. After his death in 1991 I discovered a journal of sorts with details
of his entire life until 1978. His mother Marjorie, my mother Gretchen, his friends and his
fans who contact me often are really the best source of paint for the portrait. I'll admit
this is as much a telling of my story as it is my father's. I hope by showing his example as
my parent to define him as an artist and teacher.
The most prevalent trait of Dave's was his ability to remain strong and be positive regardless of what was brewing internally. It was that message that has kept my sister Catherine and me going through a lot. There is the question of why he left the Kingston Trio and then why couldn't there have been a positive solution. Growing up I was often asked this question by my friend's parents and my personal experience has helped me to finally put the best reasons first. He'd been going non stop for six years and he had a family of four that he needed to know better. Then there was a very typical music business scenario happening from whose lemons he just plain couldn't make lemonade. I'll explore the further reasons later but it's best that I quote than the man himself when he said, "That flower had closed." I was born in April of 1960 and nearly three years later the family moved to Australia. Life seemed normal to me but in time I came to realize our story was unusual. We'd washed up on the insular shores of a paradise after a wave of success greater than most. The folks were great about not perpetuating any illusions about who we were so it took some discovering to find out just what a unique family I was born in to. We had a modest Holden station wagon and my mother, Gretchen baked cheese cakes for a local resaurant called Jonah's just to keep the ship from sinking. Dad had a television show, "Dave's Place" and did a lot of session work mostly on banjo. We returned to California in late 1967 so Mom could finish her art degree at Stanford.
- Tom Guard
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There are lots of liner notes that accompany these albums but I'll do my best to add comments and
those my father made about their songs throughout the years.
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