Welcome to my Al Stewart Page!!!
This is my Al Stewart Page. For those of you who
are totally unfamiliar with this great man, Al Stewart is a Scottish
singer-songwriter-poet-philosopher.
You can get more details about his
earlier life by going to the Page27 site.
Basically in a nutshell, Al was born 5th September, 1945 in Greennock, Scotland and grew up near Bournemouth. He moved to London in 1965, and began playing Bob Dylan songs in folk clubs. He came out with his first album Bedsitter Images in 1967. The album was in his troubadour style and his songs were about friends in Soho and tales of his own love life. Three similar albums were to follow, Love Chronicles (1969), Zero She Flies (1970) and Orange (1972) until Past Present & Future in 1973. PP&F was different because Al began to use historical events and persons as this song themes rather than his own experiences. The record was a success and introduced Al to the American audiences. PP&F was followed by what most critics consider Al's best record, Modern Times (1975). MT did not have a central theme and was more folk-rock but was well made and produced.
1976's Year of the Cat brought Al to worldwide attention when the title song became a hit. Produced by Alan Parsons, the record is considered to be Al's great commercial hit. The next project Time Passages (1978), was also produced by Parsons and had a very similar sound with plenty of saxophone and electric guitar. 24 P/Carrots (1980) with the band Shot in the Dark, was again similar in sound and feel but was more guitar oriented. 1981 brought the double album Live/Indian Summer. This had one side of new studio tracks and the rest were older songs live. Unfortunately, this LP was never made in to a CD. The EMI and the Razor and Tie CDs of 24P/Carrots carried some extra tracks that were from the studio set of Indian summer and in 1998, EMI released the live sides as a new disc called Al Stewart: Live At The Roxy Theatre, LA 1981.
Russians and Americans was released in 1984. This is generally considered a weaker set as compared to earlier works and featured a lot of synthesizer. Songs with political themes dominated the album. Last Days of the Century (1989) was also an electric/acoustic album, but better received. Historical themes were again dominant and there was also a protest song "License to Steal", a reference to Al's contractual problems with his last record company.
1992 saw the release of Rhymes in Rooms, a live set featuring longtime sideman Peter White as the only backing. Famous Last Words (1993) was aptly titled as Al thought that it would be his last album, though he continued to perform live. In 1995, (possibly as a result of encouragement by his fans!) Al came out with Between the Wars, an album that was based on the various people and events of the time period between the two world wars. He was assisted on this by Lawrence Jauber.
1996 saw the release of Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time, not a new album but a collection of alternates and other songs that were never used.
2002 saw Al release Down In The Cellar, a, new album with Lawrence Jauber. This album shows the artist's two passions, music and fine wine (he's been a wine connoisseur for more than 30 years).
Today Al continues to perform live in the USA, UK and Europe. He currently live in California with his wife, two daughters and rather large collection of vintage French Wine, a subject on which he is an acknowledged expert.
(N.B.: this bio is summarized from the Page27 site site!)