John Stewart has passed away.

[David]

John had a rabid following, too. We used to go see John & Buffy up at the Palms in the college town of Davis. He & she would set up mics & play guitar & percussion & sing. They sang everything. I saw John with some Macsters a couple of times, once just after the 1980 tour ended, & then I saw John open Stevie's shows in Beverly Hills (where he joked once about a broomstick). My dad loved the Kingston Trio even though he didn't know the names of individual members. In fact, it was my parents whom I went with to Magic Mountain to see the PBS show. Nobody had any idea Lindsey would play. We went simply to see the Kingston Trio.

I can't think of another artist -- not Matthew Sweet, not Sheryl Crow, not Billy Corgan -- who understood Lindsey's craft as completely & accurately as John Stewart did. The proof is in the pudding: John plays the electric guitar part (on a Turner) on Gold, but everybody thinks it's Lindsey because it sounds just like him. And listen to John's lead guitar on "You Can't Go Back to Kansas" at Magic Mountain -- that's Lindsey Buckingham, man! I don't mean this to denigrate John, but the "Bombs Away" album is like a Fleetwood Mac tribute album (& it's twenty times better than the fake "tribute" that Mick put together in 1998): it has Lindsey's trademark guitar & production sound (both of whom did guitars & production), it has Stevie Nicks on a couple of things, it was recorded at Fleetwood Mac's hangouts (Larrabee, Village Recorder, Wally Heider), & Herb Worthington even did the photography!

RIP