05/09/10 • Al Stewart • 08:00 PM
Historically-minded singer-songwriter Al Stewart’s career violates his own “50-year rule,” in which he tries to avoid incorporating events less than a half-century in the past into his songs. “Until you have some distance, people get hysterical about overstatement. You have to put things in perspective.” But in the past few years, Stewart’s 40-year musical output (18 original albums, plus best-ofs) has been the subject of a boxed set (the 5-CD Just Yesterday), a large-scale US reissue program to meet the demand for his back catalogue, and Al’s 2002 biography, “The True Life Adventures of a Folk Rock Troubadour” by Neville Judd, has been reissued as an updated paperback. Oh yes, and Al still plays 70 or 80 shows yearly and has a splendid new CD, Sparks of Ancient Light, his second for Appleseed, following 2005’s acclaimed A Beach Full of Shells.
The rise of late ’70s punk rock, which was more about spitting on history than chronicling it, coincided with management and record label problems for Al, and his recorded output slowed. In the early ’90s, he returned to his folk roots with a solo tour of the UK and the release of Famous Last Words, utilizing acoustic instrumentation and traditional folk and classical styles.
Between the Wars (1995) which focused on the 1920s and ’30s, marked Al’s first collaboration with former Wings guitarist Laurence Juber; their next effort, Down in the Cellar (2000), was a concept album incorporating Al’s knowledge of fine wines into his you-are-there historical and personal narratives; the CD was only released in Europe at the time and led to a drought of new Stewart material finally broken by 2005’s A Beach Full of Shells on Appleseed, on which, noted the All Music Guide, “both his vocal style and craftsmanship remains intact,” while the Miami Herald concluded that “this venerable singer/songwriter is still doing what he does best, and clearly his best is as good as ever.”
Now prepare to be dazzled by Sparks of Ancient Light.
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Ticket Price: $30, $40
