John Stewart - The Phoenix Concerts

 

This is an album that, again, I originally picked up at my local library while still living in a small town in Indiana in the 70's. I knew nothing about Stewart - in fact, I literally just found out that he had been a member of the Kingston Trio and that he wrote "Daydream Believer"! - but it was from the library, so I would take a chance on records since it was free - and I found some very interesting stuff that way. Anyway, I'm currently reading a Dave Alvin book (more on that shortly) and he mentions Stewart - I literally have never seen anyone ever talk about him before - so I pulled out my burned CD of my scratchy vinyl that I found some day in the used bins.

Not sure what you would call John's style - I suppose it's a bit folk, a bit what we now call alt-country, a bit singer-songwriter, a bit bluegrass and a bit of whatever else was going on in his mind at the time.

I guess 70's singer-songwriter is a pretty apt description (this was recorded and released in 1974), with a smidge of, say, Jackson Browne mixed with some Johnny Cash warble and a good sense of melody, as with the catchy opener, "Wheatfield Lady", but the country influences are clear as the steel guitar solos. He works a little semi-yodel and some neat melodic twists in "Kansas Rain", "You Can't Look Back" is reminiscent of 60's country-pop (something that I can't quite place) and has more nice steel guitar, and in "The Pirates of Stone County Road" he sets up a childhood melodrama where the kids used to play make-believe and actually use their imagination - this is one of the longer tunes here and he builds it well with dynamics and a strong melody and he recalls - I assume - his youth. For the last tune on side one, he picks up the pace for the sprightly "The Runaway Fool of Love".

"Roll Away the Stone" (certainly not the Mott the Hoople number!) opens side 2 as a fairly quiet number, followed by one of my faves, "July You're A Woman", with a humorous intro by John (and a jokey nod to John Denver's current hit), as he describes driving with the object of his desire next to him, tempting him to pull over and "show you what I mean" - great imagery and melody on this one. He constructs another epic semi-historical tale in the 8+ minute "The Last Campaign Trilogy", obviously, a trio of songs that blend together pretty seamlessly with dynamics and talented vocalizing from his cohorts.

Side three seems (to me anyway) to concentrate on tales of the dustbowl and travels westward as he starts with "Oldest Living Son", which weaves a story of small town folks, "Little Road and a Stone to Roll" has almost a nursery rhyme melody and cadence, "Kansas" reminds us that we can't go back, "Cody" seems to be a song about an influential mentor and the side closes with another of his stronger tunes, "California Bloodlines", in which he encourages - and succeeds - the crowd to sing along with the memorable chorus.

The final side starts with "Mother Country" and a spoken intro describing the "good old days", which were not necessarily all that good for everyone, but he depicts several scenarios with descriptive lyrics, then he gives an electric, rockin' edge to "Cops" and closes the proceedings with the encore of "Never Going Back (To Nashville Anymore)", one of his more upbeat numbers (almost Bob Seger-ish) with an extended section to introduce the band.

Certainly not for everyone, but if you dig quality singer-songwriters, alt-country, and the like, check him out - eloquent'n'expressive lyrics, catchy melodies and a strong band behind him.