Gary Stewart

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Gary Stewart (born May 28, 1944 in Jenkins , Kentucky , † December 16, 2003 in Fort Pierce , Florida ) was an American country musician and songwriter. He was known for his distinctive, vibrant voice and a style known as 'Outlaw Country'. During his greatest success and popularity, in the mid- 1970s , Time magazine described him as the King of honkytonky . In fact, he is considered one of the greatest honkytonkers of the era.

Childhood and beginning of his career

Gary R. Stewart, named after actor Gary Cooper , was born in Jenkins , Letcher County , Kentucky , to Georg and Georgia Stewart. His father was a miner; In 1959 he sustained a serious injury while working, after which the family moved to Fort Pierce, a town on Florida's Atlantic coast.

He learned guitar and piano and began performing with local bands and writing his own songs at an early age. When he was 17, he married Mary Lou Taylor and started working in an aircraft factory during the day. At night he played with country and rock bands. During a performance in Okeechobee , he met the singer Mel Tillis , who advised him to go to Nashville to record his songs. He played a few songs there for the small record label Cory and began to work on new pieces with the cop Bill Eldridge. For example, the two wrote Stonewall Jackson's country hit Poor Red Georgia Dirt . After getting a record deal with Kapp Records in 1968 , he released a couple of recordings, but they didn't sell well. However, he was able to book some successes as a songwriter, so z. B. Billy Walkers She Goes Walking Trough My Mind , Traces of a Woman and It's Time to Love Her , Cal Smiths You Can't Housebreak a Tomcat and It Takes Me All Night Long and Nat Stuckeys See Thang And Cisco . He even played the piano for a while in Charley Prides' band The Pridesmen and can also be heard on the live double album In Person . But since he himself had no success in Nashville, he returned to Florida and played again in small clubs and bars.

Career high point

Stewart's contracts with Kapp and later with Decca were soon terminated. However, a few demos got to producer Roy Dea , who convinced Jerry Bradley to sign Gary to RCA Records . He went back to Nashville in 1973 and recorded a cover version of the Allman Brothers song Ramblin Man there. Both Allmans were friends with Gary. However, the song only came to number 63 in the American country charts. In 1974 he landed his first top ten hit with Drinkin 'Thing . The following year he released his first album Out of Hand . The singles Out of Hand and She's Actin 'single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles) came in at number 4 and 1.

Out of Hand made it to number 6 on the country charts and is one of the most critically acclaimed country albums of the 1970s. It received many positive reviews from music critics and magazines such as Rolling Stone and the All Music Guide .

MCA then released his old demos of Kapp and landed at number 15 with the single You're Not the Woman You Used to Be . The rest of the 70s he released moderately successful albums for RCA and toured with his band The Honkey Tonk Liberation Army . He released Steppin 'Out in 1976, Your Place or Mine in 1977 (with guests Nicolette Larson , Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell ) and Little Junior in 1978 . The singles earned him some top 40 successes.

End of career and death

Although his albums from the '70s were well received by the press and he had a loyal fan base, he was never able to appeal to a larger audience. He was considered too country-heavy for the rock scene and too rocky for the country scene. In 1980 he released the record produced by Chips Moman , Cactus and a Rose, with Gregg Allman , Dickey Betts , Mike Lawler and Bonnie Bramlett as guests. The album wasn't played often on the radio, so RCA had Gary recorded a duet album with Dean Dillon .

During the 80s his alcohol and drug use became rampant and kept him from creative work most of the time. Another stroke of fate was the death of his son Gary Joseph Stewart, who committed suicide. In 1988 he signed a contract with HighTone and recorded 3 albums there. These included songs like An Empty Glass (That's the Way the Day Ends) (by Stewart and Dillon), Let's Go Junkin ' (by Stewart and Betts) and Brand New Whiskey (by Stewart and his wife).

He toured the US for most of the 1990s. In 2003 he released a live album recorded on Billy Bob's Texas , which was to be his first album in 10 years and his first live album.

On November 26, 2003, the day before Thanksgiving, his wife died of pneumonia at the age of 43. Stewart then canceled all of his concerts. Family members said he looked very discouraged and sad. His daughter's boyfriend and Bill Hardman finally found him dead in his home on December 16. He died of a gunshot wound to his neck that he inflicted on himself.

Discography

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)

Singles

• Ramblin 'Man (1973)
• Drinkin 'Thing (1974)
• Out of Hand (1974)
• She's Actin 'Singles (I'm Drinkin' Doubles) (1975)
• You're Not the Woman You Use to Be (1975)
• Flat Natural Born Good-Timin 'Man (1975)
• Oh, Sweet Temptation (1976)
• In Some Room Above the Street (1976)
• Your Place or Mine (1976)
• Ten Years of This (1977)
• Quits (1977)
• Whiskey Trip (1978)
• Single Again (1978)
• Stone Wall (Around Your Heart) (1978)
• Shady Streets (1979)
• Mazelle (1979)
• Cactus and a Rose (1980)
• Are We Dreamin 'the Same Dream / Roarin' (1980)
• Let's Forget That We're Married (1981)
• She's Got a Drinking Problem (1981)
• Brotherly Love (1982)
• She Sings Amazing Grace (1982)
• Those Were the Days (1983)
• Smokin 'in the Rockies (1983)
• Hey Bottle of Whiskey (1984)
• I Got a Bad Attitude (1984)
• Brand New Whiskey (1988)
• An Empty Glass (That's the Way the Day Ends) (1989)
• Rainin ', Rainin', Rainin ' (1989)

Web links

• Gary Stewart at Discogs (English)