Gary Stewart (singer)

Gary Stewart (May 28, 1945 - December 16, 2003). a country musician known for his drinking songs, was one of the first so-called "outlaw" country performers of the 1970s. A singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist, he was born in the Letcher County, Kentucky town of Jenkins, the son of a coal miner. His father sustained in 1958 an injury while working in the mines, and shortly after the family moved to Fort Pierce, a city on Florida's Atlantic coast.

Stewart began recording at twelve, moved on to songwriting, and married Mary Lou Taylor when he was eighteen. While playing a club in Okeechobee, Florida, he met country singer Mel Tillis, who advised Stewart to travel to Nashville to pitch his songs. He recorded songs for the small Cory label in 1964. In Nashville, Jerry Bradley, the son of record-producer Owen Bradley, worked with Stewart and collaborator Bill Eldridge to refine their songs, and in 1965 Stonewall Jackson's recording of their "Poor Red Georgia Dirt" made the the country charts.

Signed to the Kapp label in 1968, Stewart made several unsuccessful recordings. But Carl Smith, Billy Walker and Nat Stuckey had hits with Stewart's songs. Dropped from Kapp and then from Decca, Stewart made a series of demo tapes that found their way into the hands of producer Roy Dea, who signed Stewart to RCA Records. Their collaboration produced the hits "Drinkin' Thing," "Out of Hand" and "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)," the latter which was his only number-one song. Other hits from this most commercially successful period of Stewart's career (1974-1977) include "Flat Born Natural Good Timin' Man," "In Some Room Above the Street" and "Your Place or Mine." Stewart's recordings are characterized by his barely controlled vocals, rock-and-roll-like instrumentation, and a classicism that recalls both the country music and the rockabilly of the 1950s.

By the late 1970s Stewart no longer sold records in the quantities of a few years before, but many critics rank recordings from this era, such as "Single Again," as among his best work. He recorded an album with producer Chips Moman in 1980, Cactus and a Rose, and left RCA for the Hightone label, where he recorded Brand New in 1988. Drug and alcohol problems plagued him in the '80s, and his son, Gary Joseph Stewart, committed suicide late in the decade.

Despite these hardships, Stewart and his wife continued to tour the honky tonk circuit through the 1990s, playing venues such as Fort Worth's Billy Bob's Texas several times a year.

In 2003, Stewart released a live album, Live at Billy Bob's Texas. But on November 26, the day before Thanksgiving, his wife died of pneumonia. They had been married forty-three years.

Stewart, who had been scheduled to play Billy Bob's three days later, cancelled his concert appearances. His friends later told reporters that he was extremely despondent after Mary Lou's death. On December 16, his daughter's boyfriend visited Stewart's Palm Beach, Florida apartment to check on his welfare. Gary Stewart was dead, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the neck.

Writer Jim Lewis summed up Stewart thusly: "Stewart really didn't fit in anywhere. He wasn't Southern rock, and he wasn't Nashville country." Still, Stewart's work has gained in critical esteem since the '70s. As music critic Robert Christgau wrote, "...he's the equal of any postoutlaw you care to name except maybe John Anderson."

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

• Out of Hand (1975)

• You're Not the Woman You Used to Be (1975)

• Steppin' Out (1976)

• Your Place or Mine (1977)

• Little Junior (1978)

• Gary (1979)

• Cactus and a Rose (1980)

• Brand New (1988)

• Battleground (1990)

• The Essential Gary Stewart (1997)

Sources

• Fort Worth Star-Telegram (http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/obituaries/7511763.htm), 12/17/2003

• Palm Beach Post (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/wednesday/martin_stlucie_f3fd3d90006912a600b7.html), 12/17/2003

• Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-stewart2jan02,0,3174699.story?coll=la-news-obituaries), 1/4/2004

• Christgau, Robert (1990). Rock Albums of the '70s: A Critical Guide. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80409-3.

• Christgau, Robert (2000). Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-24560-2.

• McDonough, Jimmy (2004). Little Junior, King of the Honky-Tonks: The Life and Death of Gary Stewart. Perfect Sound Forever. http://www.furious.com/perfect/garystewart.html

• Jessen, Wade. Liner notes for The Essential Gary Stewart. RCA Records (1997).