Al Stewart

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Glasgow, United Kingdom (1965 – present)

Al Stewart (born in Glasgow, Scotland on 5 September 1945) is a British songwriter and musician. He is best known for his 1976 single Year Of The Cat and its 1978 follow-up Time Passages (both produced by Alan Parsons). Stewart’s inspiration for his songs primarily comes from the past; indeed, he is credited with creating his own genre, “historical folk rock”. At one time in his life, Stewart took guitar lessons from King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp.

Stewart grew up in the coastal resort town of Bournemouth, Dorset. According to Songfacts, in days of youthful folly Stewart played in a beat group with later BBC DJ Tony Blackburn before moving to the capital to seek fortune and fame.

Having bought his first guitar from future Police guitarist Andy Summers, Stewart traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic guitar when he was offered a weekly slot at Bunjies Coffee House in London’s Soho in 1965. From there, he went on to compete at the Les Cousins folk club on Greek Street, where he played alongside Cat Stevens, Bert Jansch, Van Morrison, Roy Harper and Ralph McTell

Although he had his share of the breaks, including a tenure at Bunjees coffee house and a record deal with CBS, life wasn’t always easy for the young troubadour; his first serious love affair ended in disaster, and he experienced all the usual insecurities of the stranger in the big city trying to find his way.
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Top Albums

  • Year Of The Cat
    Al Stewart
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  • The Best of Al Stewart
    Al Stewart Play
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  • Time Passages
    Al Stewart Play
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  • On the Border
    Al Stewart Play
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  • kareemowski

    Dude, come to Istanbul :-)

    last week

  • donato_roque

    I know Year of the Cat and Time Passages before. I never listened to his whole albums before. Regret that now. OMG how could I have missed this SOB?

    last month

  • estravagaria

    On a morning from a Bogart movie In a country where they turn back time...

    November 2011

  • waldojeffers1

    saw Al a couple days ago, his voice still sounds great live. Nice guy too.

    October 2011

  • Luffbucket

    @ClydeConkey: lol, great stuff :-)

    September 2011

  • morleron

    Smoked a lot of Columbian weed in the mid-'70s listening to Al's music,. I originally heard "Roads to Moscow" on KISW an AOR FM station out of Seattle, WA. while i was living there in 1975-76. I went out and ordered "Past, Present, and Future" about a month before "Year of the Cat" came out. And he's still making great music as "Shards of Ancient Light" shows.

    September 2011

  • ProdigalPriest

    I was in in a playpen discovering the joys of finger-painting with my own excreta but I can still remember listening to Year of the Cat. loved it then and still do now 35 years later.

    August 2011

  • ClydeConkey

    Cleaned my first bag of pot on this album cover in 1976 - THAT'S THE SPIRIT! (For you youngsters, that is when pot had seeds in it and album covers were bigger than one square foot.)

    July 2011
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