1. I only met Dave Guard once, and I was pretty much in awe of him. It was in a bar in Nude Hampster after a gig we'd played there. I didn't get much one-on-one with him because he was mainly there to see Bob Shane. But I found him to be very gracious, as I'd expected. He gave me his phone number and said to call him. Sadly, I never got around to doing that.
I got to know Nick and John a little better. Both of them were musical heroes of mine, but they were very down to earth and easy to talk to. I only worked on stage with Nick once, and that was his last night as a Kingston Trio member. Bob had brought me in to play bass that night so we could all travel together the next day to a gig where I was to rejoin the front line. I really wished I could have been in the audience for that show instead of in the band. Nick was very emotional and his rendition of "Hobo's Lullaby" that night was his farewell anthem.
I did have one odd incident with John, and I think I've told this story before. The Trio was planning a recording project and we were gathering tunes for it. We had selected a song of John's called "Heart Of A Kid". It has two verses and a repeating chorus. We thought it would be good to have each of us sing a verse, so I took it upon myself to write a third verse. The next time John was on a show with us he cornered me and ripped me a new one for messing with his song. I apologized to him, but I still sing the song with my added verse because it fits the song well. So far I haven't been struck by lightning.
2. No - never did hear Dave play banjo live. When I met him he was very much into playing a midi-guitar that had captured his attention. Dave was always an innovator and the midi technology was something that allowed him to apply his instrumental skills in a new way. Midi banjo wasn't available yet in the late 1980's, but if it had been he would've been into that. To my knowledge, Dave learned banjo kind of on the fly as the Trio was stretching its wings. If there had been a way to take the banjo to a new level via the electronic media he was experimenting with I'm sure he would've tried it. I am in touch with his son, Tom - I might pose the question to him.
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