I loved Gary Stewart. Personal choice of my favorite would be "Single Again" (driftin' around from bar to bar".... Gary a suicide, Faron a suicide, and Mel Street a suicide. Rest in peace.
Gary is who I grew up listening to.Nothin better
Gary Stewart died on Dec 16th 2003 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had been dealing with deep depression after the loosing his wife to pneumonia. Gary is also known as the "King of Honky Tonk" which is a title most deserved by one of the greatest singer/songwriters ever known. It was another tragic blow to the almost extinct classic country singers; Faron Young was also another of the classics who committed suicide 7 years prior to Gary.
This is hands down one of my favorites every song is real good to great. This guy grew up another Florida cowboy with alcohol and heartache which happens to be the focus of most of the songs on this CD. I'm surprised he never made it bigger then he did, really good stuff for the true country fan. This is a great cd if you want to get a lot of 1st rate hits on one CD.
He drank him self to death in the early 2000's, 2002 I believe.
I agree with Sean, there's no telling how far his career could have gone had he not been derailed by drugs and alcohol. I'm old enough that he was in his heyday when I was in high school. You'd have been hard pressed to find a pickup truck in the Mansfield High School parking lot in the late seventies that didn't have a Gary Stewart 8 track stashed away in it. To this day, you'd be hard pressed to spend any considerable time in any Texas dancehall without hearing at least 1 Gary Stewart tune, even though he basically flushed his career down the toilet 25+ years ago. "Empty Glass" is still the song of choice when it's time to herd the drunks toward the exit. I went to 2 different venues to see him in concert in the 80's...he never showed up to either one. I finally saw him in Fort Worth in the mid nineties; he was pretty trashed but he fought through it and actually put on a decent show. I didn't even mind that he was hitting on my girlfriend right in front of me after the show...I finally got to see him in concert and it gave me a Gary Stewart story to tell that I'll never forget.
Easily one of the best "honky-tonkin" albums ever made. You hear all the time about singers who lived their songs, but Gary was definitly one of the few. Whether you're tapping your feet to the rhythm of the classics sung like only he can sing them, or hanging onto every word as you know he's pulling his heart out, cryin' in his beer - this is one helluva album.
i would give hime more stars if i could. he's pretty much the only true country music singer/song writer and will always be king of the honky tonks.too i think more people listen to his music than he ever thought, he just never really got radio play, he didn't go commercial and sell out, he kept it real
This is the man. The King of the Texas hole in the wall get your ass kicked for looking at ole' boy the wrong way honk tonk. If it were not for drugs this man would be look upon as the one of the top 3 greats in country music. It's cryin shame he was before my time, but at least i can still always find him in a " Whiskey Trip"
yeah well I like this guy, but have you noticed the weird way that they try to advertise on each musician's calling. They tempt you to go to "-------- ---------'s other fans are buying" and it's always the same group of bands...always...give me a break. We aren't stupid here ya know. Be honest, all you want us to do is navigate to the supposedly "hot ones"....I thought Texas Music was all about "the other"...not Nashville stuff. Come on.
Although I'll never have the chance to ever see Gary at Billy Bob's, I always wanted to. This is as close as I will ever get. You can play this cd close your eyes and see him on stage.
Very well produced live CD.