I have always thought that Stewart was a VERY talented songwriter. But I think his banjo playing was nowhere near the level of Guard's (although I have heard arguments to the contrary) and Stewart's singing voice is so outstandingly bad that it takes both of the other members to overshadow it. Not the case with Guard.

I guess it is obvious that I am not a Stewart fan.

But, to his credit, John blew new life into the KT - most especially through his songwriting. Before he came along, the members of the Trio were generally tacking a few alterations to obviously trad songs and claiming to have written them - unfortunately a common practice at the time. There were some notable exceptions penned by each of the KT.

I have never heard the story of Dave Guard's departure from the Trio. I have the sense that there were some bad feelings involved because one is hard pressed to find pictures of the original three or of Dave, alone, on the net. Does anyone know what happened? I think that during the Whiskey Hill days, Dave was still unaware of his health issues; but I could be wrong.