1. Alastair Ian Stewart was born on 5 September 1945 and is a Scottish-born singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s.
22 Facts About Al Stewart
1. 2.
Al Stewart developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs with tales of characters and events from history.
3.
Al Stewart has released 16 studio and four live albums since his debut album Bed-Sitter Images in 1967, and continues to tour extensively in the US, Canada, Europe, and the UK.
4.
Al Stewart is best known for his 1976 hit single "Year of the Cat", from the platinum album of the same name.
5.
Al Stewart has worked with Peter White, Alan Parsons, Jimmy Page, Richard Thompson, Rick Wakeman, Francis Monkman, Tori Amos, and Tim Renwick, and more recently has played with Dave Nachmanoff and former Wings lead-guitarist Laurence Juber.
6.
Al Stewart appears throughout the musical history of the folk revivalist era.
7.
Al Stewart played at the initial Glastonbury Festival in 1970, knew Yoko Ono before she met John Lennon, shared a London flat with Paul Simon, and hosted at the Les Cousins folk club in London in the 1960s.
8.
Al Stewart then signed to Columbia Records, for whom he released six albums.
9.
Al Stewart followed Past, Present and Future with Modern Times, in which the songs were lighter on historical references and more of a return to the theme of short stories set to music.
10.
Al Stewart had all of the music and orchestration written and completely recorded before he had a title for any of the songs.
11.
Al Stewart mentioned in a Canadian radio interview that he has done this for six of his albums, and he often writes four different sets of lyrics for each song.
12.
Al Stewart followed up with his second live album, the acoustic Rhymes in Rooms, which featured only Al Stewart and Peter White, and Famous Last Words, which was dedicated to the memory of the late Peter Wood, who died the year of its release.
13.
In 1995, Al Stewart was invited to play at the 25th anniversary Glastonbury Festival.
14.
In 2000, Al Stewart released Down in the Cellar, a concept album themed on wine.
15.
Al Stewart had begun a love affair with wine in the 1970s when, he admitted, he had more money than he knew how to spend, and so turned to fine wines.
16.
Al Stewart sang a duet with Albert Hammond of Hammond's "It Never Rains in Southern California" on Hammond's 2010 album Legend.
17.
In 2011, Al Stewart sang a duet with his guitarist and opening act Dave Nachmanoff on Nachmanoff's album Step Up.
18.
In May 2015, Al Stewart performed the albums Past, Present and Future and Year of the Cat in their entirety at the Royal Albert Hall with a band that included Tim Renwick, Peter White and Stuart Elliott, who had appeared on the original recordings.
19.
In 2024 Al Stewart released a live album along with the Empty Pockets, with one track having as special guest Peter White.
20.
Al Stewart was married to Kristine, with whom he had two daughters, from 1993 to 2005.
21.
On occasion, Al Stewart has set poems to music, such as "My Enemies Have Sweet Voices" on the 1970 album Zero She Flies.
22.
Al Stewart invited Morgan to read the poem at the Beverly gig on the same tour, whilst Al Stewart took a short break, and Morgan subsequently read another poem from his works as well.