John StewartSinger-Songwriter John Stewart, best known for his seven-year stint with the Kingston Trio and for penning the hit song “Daydream Believer," has died at the age of 68.  With his family by his side, Stewart passed away on Jan 19 at the same San Diego, California hospital at which he was born. 

As Jim Musselman of Appleseed Recordings, which released his last several solo recordings, wrote in a note that was sent to the Folk DJ list: Stewart “wrote songs that captured the essence of the real America and the people who made the country interesting.  From sitting in a room of Jamie Wyeth paintings and writing songs about the characters in those paintings, John, like Steinbeck, Twin or Charles Kuralt, captured the true American experience with his words and images.” 

A prolific writer, Stewart penned an estimated 600+ songs — many of them deeply personal.

Stewart recorded his first single, “Rocking Anna,” as guitarist and frontman for John Stewart and the Furies while still a teenager.  However, he told the authors of Folk Music: More Than A Song (Crowell, 1976) that folk music was a motivating force in his life from about 1958 on.  “Burl Ives gave me the first inkling that there was another kind of music that I could play on my guitar besides rock ‘n’ roll, and then it was the Kingston Trio, and, from there, Pete Seeger and the Weavers.”

After forming and recording three albums with the Cumberland Three (actor Tim Robbins’ father Gil was also a member) for Roulette, Stewart joined the Kingston Trio as Dave Guard’s replacement in 1961.  The trio, with Guard at the helm, had previously recorded Stewart’s “Molly Dee” and “Green Grasses.”   After leaving the trio in 1967, Stewart briefly considered teaming up with John Denver and wrote “Daydream Believer,” which became a mega-hit for The Monkees, before campaigning with musical partner and future wife Buffy Ford for Robert F. Kennedy for President in 1968 and embarking on a solo career.  In 1969, he released his classic album California Bloodlines.  Although that was the first of seven solo albums to reach the charts over the next decade, his most commercially successful effort was Bombs Away Dream Babies, a Top Ten album in 1979 that included the hit single “Gold,” which he recorded with Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. 

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Stewart released several albums, as well as those by other artists, on his own Homecoming label.  Later in the 90s, he released albums on Shanachie, Delta and Folk Era before signing with Appleseed Recordings in 2000.  Stewart continued to record and perform up until late last year, while a number of other artists recorded his songs over the years, notably including Rosanne Cash, who had a 1988 country hit with “Stewart’s “Runaway Train.”  Stewart and fellow former Kingston Trio member Nick Reynolds had also teamed up in recent years to run a Trio Fantasy Camp during which campers would practice their favorite Kingston Trio song and then have an opportunity to perform it with them.