John Stewart, 1939-2008

Singer-songwriter John Stewart just passed away. Some of the details are in the obituary by Tom DeLisle at ChillyWinds.com. The AP's obituary is being carried by a number of news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, Former Kingston Trio member, John Stewart, dead at 68 01/20/08.

Here's a video of him from 2007, resembling Johnny Cash a bit. His voice got pretty raspy in his later years. But it didn't lose it's charm. His special talent was as a songwriter.



I suppose the first time I heard John Stewart play was at a concert in Santa Cruz, sometimes in the 1990s, where he opened for and played duets with Nanci Griffith.

I saw him again opening for and playing duets with Rosanne Cash, a longtime friend and collaborator. (Rosanne reports on her Web site that she is recovering well from brain surgery late last year.) He played together with his wife Buffy. He and Buffy struck me intially as a surprising combination, but I soon warmed to their style.

This is a video of him with the Kingston Trio, where he got his start as a songwriter and performer. Stewart has to be the middle one. The guy on the left looks disturbingly like Tom Brokaw. They are singing Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"



I went to a concert in Mill Valley, CA, at a neat little club called Sweetwater once to hear Kate Campbell for the first time. She was opening for Stewart, who played a long set that was easily my most intensive exposure to his music. He was recording what he intended to be a retrospective album of his entire career, so he sang a wide range of his songs. Buffy accomanied him. She also had undergone brain surgery for a tumor at the time and was wearning an eye patch. (I don't know if the eye patch was a permanent matter; sometimes with brain surgery an eye has to be removed.)

The last time I saw him and Buffy perform was at Crate and Barrel in Berkeley, a popular folk venue. I had become a real fan by that time.

Here's a video of his most successful song, performed by the group that made it famous.



Tags: john stewart, rosanne cash