John Stewart Passed Away On Saturday

[Janna]

FYI...


'Daydream Believer' Songwriter Dies
5 hours ago

SAN DIEGO (AP) — John Stewart, who wrote the Monkees' hit "Daydream Believer" and became a well-known figure in the 1960s folk music revival as a member of The Kingston Trio, has died, according to the band's Web site. He was 68.

Stewart suffered a massive stroke or brain aneurysm and died early Saturday at a San Diego hospital, the band announced on its official Web site.

"The world has lost one of its best men, but a man who lived well and made many people happy with his love, his wit and his music," the announcement said.

Stewart joined The Kingston Trio in 1961, three years after the band released its version of an old folk song, "Tom Dooley," that went on to become a hit. Stewart replaced the band's founder Dave Guard, who had left to pursue a new musical direction.

Stewart spent six years leading the group, during which time the band recorded 13 albums, according to its Web site.

After the trio disbanded in 1967, Stewart went on to an acclaimed solo career that included recording more than 40 albums.

Stewart's wife Buffy and children were at his side when he died, the Web site said. Plans had not been announced for memorial services.

On the Net:
Kingston Trio,: http://www.kingstontrio.com

Rest in peace, John. You'll be missed!

[wondergirl9847]

OMG..noooo! I saw him at Lindsey's concert in San Francisco back in November 2006. WHY didn't I say hello to him?!!

What a great, talented man. He will be missed.

[michelej1]

[Did Stevie study the Kingston Trio's music?]

Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...-pe-california

By Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 21, 2008

John Stewart, an intense troubadour who helped set the standards for the singer-songwriter movement of the early 1970s with his classic album "California Bloodlines," died Saturday in his hometown of San Diego after suffering a stroke. He was 68.

Stewart didn't match that acclaim again, but in the long solo career that followed his seven years with the Kingston Trio, he recorded more than 45 albums, flirted with chart success, pioneered the independent recording and release of records, and remained a hard-touring folk patriarch with a loyal following.

Stewart, who lived in Novato in Northern California, had a concert scheduled at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica on Feb. 2 and was in San Diego to complete work on a new album.

Recorded in Nashville with some of the musicians who worked on Bob Dylan's "Nashville Skyline," "California Bloodlines" wasn't a commercial hit when it came out in 1969, but its folk-country blend and Stewart's literary use of quintessential American characters and geography have resonated through the decades in the folk genre that has become known as Americana.

" 'California Bloodlines' is a vision of America written after traveling around the country spending my boyhood on racetracks," Stewart, whose father was a horse trainer, said in a 2003 interview with the San Jose Mercury News. "When I left the Trio, I was reading [Jack] Kerouac and [John] Steinbeck with Andrew Wyeth prints hanging on my wall. All that somehow took me to the songs on that record."

The album was included in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 200 best albums of all time, and on his 2006 album "West of the West," contemporary folk mainstay Dave Alvin recorded the title song, with its evocative refrain: "Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart/And a California woman in my song/Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart/And a California heartbeat in my soul."

"[Stewart] was probably one of the greatest songwriters around," Roz Larman, the longtime host of KPFK-FM's "Folk Scene" radio program, told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday. "He wrote songs about the United States. You could tell he really loved America. . . . He just knew this country real well, and he was just an amazing songwriter."

Born Sept. 5, 1939, in San Diego, Stewart started performing when he was a teenager in Pomona, and made three albums with the folk group Cumberland Three. He then joined the popular Kingston Trio in 1961 when founding member Dave Guard left the group.

After leaving the trio in 1967, Stewart hit the campaign trail with Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, then began his solo career. His biggest song was "Daydream Believer," a No. 1 hit for the Monkees and also a chart single for Anne Murray. Rosanne Cash later found success with his "Runaway Train."

The biggest hit Stewart recorded himself was "Gold," from his 1979 Top 10 album "Bombs Away Dream Babies." On that project he collaborated with two artists who had studied the Kingston Trio's music when they were starting out -- Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

For the most part, though, he remained a stalwart of the folk circuit. In 2000, he and his former Kingston Trio colleague Nick Reynolds founded the Trio Fantasy Camp in Scottsdale, Ariz., an annual event where fans could perform with the pair.

Stewart is survived by his wife, Buffy Ford Stewart; their son, Luke, and three children from a previous marriage, Mikael, Jeremy and Amy.

Services are pending.

[Tango]

Originally Posted by michelej1

[Did Stevie study the Kingston Trio's music?]

Why do you question that? Stevie has stated she picked up on vocal harmonies from other groups in the past. She has a very (okay, VERY) rudimentary ability to play piano chords, etc. The word "study" need not be limited to playing the guitar, but could be reflecting a study of other aspects of the Kingston Trio music, and Fleetwood Mac certainly used a three piece harmony style in the Rumours generation.

[michelej1]

I don't think the Kingston Trio was one of Stevie's influences. Although, I'm sure she probably heard enough of them while working with Lindsey early on.

Regarding harmonies, I think she probably looked at The Mamas and Papas, Everly Bros., etc.

Michele

[danax6]

Originally Posted by michelej1

[Did Stevie study the Kingston Trio's music?]

I think it was mainly Lindsey, but he did teach her about music using other bands. Remember, she mentioned she was at one point turned off by The Beatles because Lindsey made her listen to them constantly. In the Tusk documentary Lindsey mentions another band, who's name now escapes me. So she might not have sought them out herself, but I bet they passed through their record player now and then.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by danax6

Remember, she mentioned she was at one point turned off by The Beatles because Lindsey made her listen to them constantly.

Yes, she said he was trying to teach her about bars and she would say to him, 'what bar? You mean the one down the street?' I don't doubt she heard more than enough of the Kingston Trio when they were together.

Michele

[danax6]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Yes, she said he was trying to teach her about bars and she would say to him, 'what bar? You mean the one down the street?'

"Bridge over troubled water?"

[Carol Lee]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Yes, she said he was trying to teach her about bars and she would say to him, 'what bar? You mean the one down the street?' I don't doubt she heard more than enough of the Kingston Trio when they were together.

Michele

Why would Lindsey be trying to teach her about bars when he had no formal music training and doesn't read music? Or am I wrong?

[michelej1]

This is from the interview with Ian Meldrum:

Meldrum: Going back to the first song that you wrote, you said you got the guitar and wrote a song. What musical influences were going around in your mind?

Nicks: Everly Brothers. I would say The Beatles except for the fact when I met Lindsey he was so insistent that I listen to The Beatles for form, for like: here's your verse, here's your one bar, and I'm going "this is a bar down the corner - right?" I mean, two bars, and then there's another verse, and then you have to have a chorus, and now you have to have a bridge, and I'm going over to a blotter, and I don't understand this. So I got a little upset with people that I was forced to listen to. So, I was not forced to listen to the Everley Brothers and I was not forced to listen to R&B or The Supremes or The Beach Boys, The Four Tops.