Gary Stewart (singer)

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Gary Stewart
Birth name Gary R. Stewart
Also known as Little Junior, King of Honky-Tonk
Born May 28, 1944(1944-05-28)
Jenkins, Kentucky, U.S.
Died December 16, 2003 (aged 59)
Fort Pierce, Florida, U.S.
Genre(s) Country, Outlaw Country, Honky-Tonk, Southern rock
Occupation(s) Musician, Songwriter
Instrument(s) Piano, Guitar, Bass
Years active 1968 - 2003
Label(s) Cory, Kapp, Decca, RCA, MCA, HighTone, Smith Music Group
Associated acts Dean Dillon, Dickey Betts, Gregg Allman

Gary Stewart (May 28, 1944 – December 16, 2003)[1] was a country musician and songwriter known for his distinctive vibrato voice and his southern rock influenced, outlaw country sound. During the peak of his popularity in the mid-1970s Time magazine described him as the "king of honkytonk."[2]

Contents

[edit] Early life and career

Named after actor Gary Cooper, Gary R. Stewart was born in the Letcher County, Kentucky, town of Jenkins, the son of George and Georgia Stewart. In 1959 his father, a coal miner, 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.[3]

Learning guitar and piano, Stewart began touring with local bands and writing songs in his teens. He married Mary Lou Taylor, more than three years his senior, at age seventeen and began working during the daytime in an airplane factory. He still played in rock and country bands at night. While playing in an Okeechobee, Florida, honky-tonk known as the Wagon Wheel he met country singer Mel Tillis, who advised Stewart to travel to Nashville to pitch his songs. He recorded a few sides for the small Cory label in 1964 and began co-writing songs with local policeman Bill Eldridge. Stewart and Eldridge wrote Stonewall Jackson's 1965 country hit, "Poor Red Georgia Dirt." Signed to the Kapp label in 1968, Stewart made several unsuccessful recordings. But several songwriting successes followed for artists like Billy Walker ("She Goes Walking Through My Mind," "Traces of a Woman," "It's Time to Love Her"), Cal Smith ("You Can't Housebreak a Tomcat", "It Takes Me All Night Long"), and Nat Stuckey ("Sweet Thang And Cisco"). He even played piano for a time in Charley Pride's band the Pridesmen, and can be heard on Pride's live In Person double-album. Disappointed with Music Row, however, he soon returned to Florida and resumed playing countrified rock 'n' roll in local clubs and bars.[4]

[edit] Peak of career

Stewart was dropped from Kapp and then from Decca, but a series of demo tapes, including some countrified Motown tunes, found their way into the hands of producer Roy Dea, who convinced Jerry Bradley to sign Stewart to RCA Records. He returned to Nashville in 1973 and recorded a cover version of "Ramblin' Man" by the Allman Brothers, both of whom where Stewart's personal friends. It only charted at #63 on the country charts but his follow-up, 1974's "Drinkin' Thing," became a top-ten country hit. Stewart's album Out of Hand was released in early 1975. "Out of Hand," the title cut from the album, became a #4 country hit and was followed by number one hit "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)."[5]

The album Out of Hand, which climbed to #6 on the Billboard country albums chart, has since become one of the most critically lauded country albums of the 1970s. Rock critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A- saying that it "was the best regular issue country LP I've heard in about five years."[6] Rolling Stone gave it high praise as well, stating that, "With practitioners like Stewart around, honky-tonk—and rockabilly—may not be dead yet."[7] Thom Jurek of All Music Guide later gave the album five of five stars and stated that: "A strong case could be made for Out of Hand as one of the Top 100 country records of all time. It might be in this writer's Top Ten!"[8] Country music critic Bill C. Malone called Out of Hand "one of the greatest honky-tonk country albums ever recorded.[9]

Later in 1975, MCA released Stewart's old Kapp material scoring a #15 hit with the single "Your Not the Woman You Use to Be." For the rest of the 1970s Stewart played the honky tonks with his road band, The Honky Tonk Liberation Army, and recorded similar albums with modest success for RCA: 1976's Steppin' Out, 1977's Your Place or Mine (which featured guest artists Nicolette Larson, Emmylou Harris, and Rodney Crowell), and 1978's Little Junior. These albums spawned several top forty hit singles, including: "Flat Natural Born Good-Timin' Man," "In Some Room Above the Street," "Single Again," "Your Place or Mine," "Quits," and "Whiskey Trip."[10] His 1977 ode to marital distress entitled "Ten Years of This," from the album Your Place or Mine, was a favorite of Bob Dylan and a #16 hit.[11]

[edit] Later career and death

Though his late 1970s albums were well-received by critics and his core audience, but Stewart never established a large audience. He was often labeled as too country for rock music and too rock for the country music. In 1980, he released the Chips Moman produced Cactus and a Rose which featured Southern rockers Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Mike Lawler, and Bonnie Bramlett. It did not garner much airplay and RCA teamed Stewart up with songwriter Dean Dillon for a pair of duet records. Soon after, Stewart returned to Florida, where alcoholism and drug use kept him from recording for much of the 1980s. His son, Gary Joseph Stewart, committed suicide late in the decade as well. Stewart signed with the HighTone label in 1988 and recorded three albums over the next five years. These albums included fan favorites like the minor-hit "An Empty Glass (That's the Way the Day Ends)" (written by Stewart and Dillon), "Let's Go Jukin'" (written by Stewart and Betts), and "Brand New Whiskey" (written by Stewart and his wife).[12]

Stewart continued to tour through the 1990s, playing venues such as Fort Worth's Billy Bob's Texas several times a year.[13] During this time Bob Dylan, while touring with Tom Petty in Florida, drove out of his way to meet Stewart, "confessing that he'd played Stewart's ode to marital malaise 'Ten Years of This' over and over, the record casting a spell over him."[14] In 2003, Stewart released Live at Billy Bob's Texas, his first album in ten years and his first ever live album. Reviewers at All Music Guide gave it good marks.[15]

On November 26, 2003, the day before Thanksgiving, his wife of nearly forty-three years died of pneumonia. Stewart, who had been scheduled to play Billy Bob's three days later, canceled 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 and Stewart's very close friend Bill Hardman visited Stewart's Fort Pierce, Florida, home to check on his welfare. They found Stewart dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the neck.[16]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

  • 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)
  • Brotherly Love (1982) with Dean Dillon
  • Those Were the Days (1982) with Dean Dillon
  • Brand New (1988)
  • Battleground (1990)
  • I'm a Texan (1993)
  • Live at Billy Bob's (2003)

[edit] Singles

Year Song US Country Album
1973 "Ramblin' Man" 63
1974 "Drinkin' Thing" 10 Out of Hand
"Out of Hand" 4
1975 "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)" 1
"You're Not the Woman You Used to Be" 15 You're Not the Woman You Used to Be
"Flat Natural Born Good-Timin' Man" 20 Steppin' Out
1976 "Oh, Sweet Temptation" 23
"In Some Room Above the Street" 15
"Your Place or Mine" 11 Your Place or Mine
1977 "Ten Years of This" 16
"Quits" 26 Steppin' Out
1978 "Whiskey Trip" 16 Little Junior
"Single Again" 36
"Stone Wall (Around Your Heart)" 41
1979 "Shady Streets" 66 Gary
"Mazelle" 75
1980 "Cactus and a Rose" 48 Cactus and the Rose
"Are We Dreamin' the Same Dream/Roarin'" 66
1981 "Let's Forget That We're Married" 72 Gary's Greatest
"She's Got a Drinking Problem" 36
1982 "Brotherly Love" (with Dean Dillon) 41 Brotherly Love
"She Sings Amazing Grace" 83
1983 "Those Were the Days" (with Dean Dillon) 47 Those Were the Days
"Smokin' in the Rockies" (with Dean Dillon) 71
1984 "Hey, Bottle of Whiskey" 75
"I Got a Bad Attitude" 64
1988 "Brand New Whiskey" 63 Brand New
1989 "An Empty Glass (That's the Way the Day Ends)" 64
"Rainin', Rainin', Rainin'" 77

[edit] References

  1. ^ Some sources state he was born in 1945, but Kentucky birth records and the Social Security death index proves he was born in 1944. The latter confirms his death date. See Gary R Stewart birth record, Commonwealth of Kentucky, vol. 061, certificate number 30044, 1944.
  2. ^ DeVoss, David (Monday, September 27, 1976). "A Honky-Tonk Man". Time.  He was often introduced as the "King of Honky-Tonk"; see, for instance, the intro to his 2003 live album Live at Billy Bob's.
  3. ^ "A Honky-Tonk Man"; Wolff, Kurt; Orla Duane (2000). Country Music: The Rough Guide. London: Rough Guides, 376-377. ISBN 1858285348. , McDonough, Jimmy (2004). Little Junior, King of the Honky-Tonks: The Life and Death of Gary Stewart (Electronic Journal). Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved on 2008-02-10., and Gary Stewart: Biography. CMT.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  4. ^ Country Music: The Rough Guide, 376-377; "A Honky-Tonk Man"; "Little Junior, King of the Honky-Tonks: The Life and Death of Gary Stewart"; Gary Stewart: Biography; Stambler, Irwin; Grelun Landon (1997). Country Music: The Encyclopedia. New York: St. Martin's Press, 464-465. ISBN 0312151217. , Bogdanov, Vladimir; Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine (2003). All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 721-722. ISBN 0879307609. 
  5. ^ Country Music: The Rough Guide, 376-377; "A Honky-Tonk Man"; "Little Junior, King of the Honky-Tonks: The Life and Death of Gary Stewart"; Gary Stewart: Biography; Country Music: The Encyclopedia, 464-465; All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music, 721-722.
  6. ^ Christgau, Robert (1990). Rock Albums of the '70s: A Critical Guide. New York: Da Capo Press, 373. ISBN 0306804093. 
  7. ^ Miller, Jim (July 3, 1975). "Gary Stewart: Out of Hand". Rolling Stone (190). 
  8. ^ All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music, 721-722.
  9. ^ Malone, Bill C. (2006). Don't Get Above Your Raisin': Country Music and the Southern Working Class. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 363. ISBN 0252073665. 
  10. ^ Country Music: The Rough Guide, 376-377; "A Honky-Tonk Man"; "Little Junior, King of the Honky-Tonks: The Life and Death of Gary Stewart"; Gary Stewart: Biography; Country Music: The Encyclopedia, 464-465; All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music, 721-722; Rock Albums of the '70s: A Critical Guide, 373.
  11. ^ "Little Junior, King of the Honky-Tonks: The Life and Death of Gary Stewart." Dylan notes his admiration of for Gary Stewart in a 1978 interview with Playboy. See, for instance, [1].
  12. ^ Country Music: The Rough Guide, 376-377; "A Honky-Tonk Man"; "Little Junior, King of the Honky-Tonks: The Life and Death of Gary Stewart"; Gary Stewart: Biography; Country Music: The Encyclopedia, 464-465; All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music, 721-722.
  13. ^ Gary Stewart. Lone Star Music. Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
  14. ^ "Little Junior, King of the Honky-Tonks: The Life and Death of Gary Stewart."
  15. ^ All Music Guide, [2]
  16. ^ "Little Junior, King of the Honky-Tonks: The Life and Death of Gary Stewart"; Flippo, Chet. "Honky-Tonk Singer Gary Stewart Dies: Out of Hand country rocker apparently committed suicide", CMT.com, December 17, 2003. Retrieved on 2008-02-10. , and Passy, Charles. "The Ballad of Gary & Mary Lou: Gary Stewart was a Hard-Partying Country Star, the King of Honky-Tonk, but it was his Devoted Lou Who Kept His Life Together, and When She Died, He Just Couldn't Go On", Palm Beach Post, March 14, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-02-10. 

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[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

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