April 17, 2009

A few weeks ago I posted a Miriam Makeba concert from the Hollywood Bowl in 1962. I made mention of the fact that one of the opening acts was the recently formed Dave Guard's Whiskeyhill Singers. I got a lot of response on that, with readers wanting to know when I would get around to posting it. Sorry for the delay, so here it is.

For those of you not familiar with Dave Guard or the Whiskeyhill Singers, Guard had recently left The Kingston Trio, taking with him David "Buck" Wheat, their accompanist bass player. The Kingston Trio was one of the most successful folk acts of the late 1950's to early 1960's, cresting a wave of popularity that ebbed just around the time The Beatles came on the scene. Folk music in general had achieved a great amount of popularity during this time - first as a true exponent of Americana and later as a means of protest, although the protest part had been around for a long time with the likes of Pete Seeger, The Vietnam War seemed to be the galvanizing point from which a lot of protest Folk singers emerged.

Dave Guard's Whiskeyhill singers consisted of Dave Guard, Cyrus Faryar, Judy Henske and Dave "Buck" Wheat.

The group didn't last very long, splitting up shortly after this concert was recorded. They released one album for Capitol, with another as yet unreleased.

So here is a glimpse of a short-lived group, whose members went on to pursue other musical avenues and achieve names in their own right. Their traditional folk approach is evident in the three songs from this portion of the set: 1. Railroad Bill 2. The Oxdriver 3. Salomila

Enjoy.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon