Within the catch-all designation known as “country” music there has always existed a range of styles. Cowboy music, country-folk, pop country, country-blues, Americana, Western swing. A voice more expert than mine could probably cite a dozen.
One such style — mostly forgotten* in today’s country scene — is Honky Tonk. Most folks probably know it, if they know it, via the practitioners of “outlaw” country in the seventies and eighties. Guys like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, and David Allan Coe. Honky Tonk is the rough, rebellious edge of country music. It’s the rock & roll side of country. It’s the scruffy, workingman’s answer to the mainstream and the middle-of-the-road.
As writer Nik Cohn put it in a 1976 article for New York magazine:
“Traditionally, it has been the music that Country makes when it comes to the cities. Farm boys leave the land and go to work in factories, on construction sites, and oil drills. Their world changes and so, inevitably, do their songs. Out go the church, the family, the village community; in comes honky-tonking.”
Within the forgotten style there are also forgotten artists, none more deserving of a contemporary renaissance than Gary Stewart.
I came to Stewart a few months ago when I heard “Whiskey Trip” for the first time. The chorus grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.
Takin’ me a whiskey trip
Loving her with every sip
I’m just like a sailing ship
Waiting for the winds to blow
Whiskey, you’re a friend of mine
You can blow away my mind
To some other place and time
Taking me a whiskey trip
The music made me embarrassed to not already know the name. For in Stewart one finds all the same things that made Jennings and Nelson and Haggard into legends, and maybe even a little something extra.
That something — which is admittedly hard to pinpoint — is probably the reason Stewart isn’t more widely known. He’s just a bit more idiosyncratic than most of his contemporaries, a little harder to decipher. I wish I could say exactly why but the truth is you have to listen. If you like Jennings et al you’ll probably like Stewart, and you’ll probably understand exactly what I mean.
Below, two clips to get started. If you’re at all intrigued I highly recommend downloading The Essential Gary Stewart and riding on from there.
Let the lyrics sit with you for a bit. This guy was the truth.
*Mostly, but not entirely.
