Stewart's love
of 'all things West' is undoubtably due to his early years of thousands
upon thousands of miles spent gazing out the back window of a speeding
automobile. If not miles accumulated while moving to new and better
jobs for his father, they were 'vacation' miles driving to and from
kinfolk who had the good sense to stay in the West. Mesas, mountains,
tumbleweeds, dirt roads leading off to who knows where and the musky
scent of sage (combined with the musky scent of his two older brothers,
Brad and David) were burned into his little brain. His first ten years
led him from California to Texas, Utah, Alabama, Utah, Pennsylvania,
Utah, Pennsylvania and Iowa. As soon as he was old enough to decide
where he wanted to go on his own, he returned to his beloved West and
the beautiful Sonoran Desert surrounding Tucson, AZ.
In his pre-teen
years, Stewart had plucked around on his Dad's old 1941 Martin D-28,
but always 'upside down' as a 'leftie'. At age 12, he got his first
guitar and went, left-handed, to his first guitar lesson. The teacher,
Tommy Thompson, grabbed the guitar and flipped it over, making it a
right-handed instrument. "But, I'm left-handed, sir" said
Stewart. "We all are, son" was the reply. A few monthe later,
Stewart quit taking lessons and taught himself chords and finger-picking,
filling his lonely junior-high school years from end of school day to
bed-time.
Then, while watching
a performance of "Once Upon A Mattress", which featured his
brother, David, as Prince Dauntless, Stewart 'got bit by the acting bug'
and said, "That's what I want to do." So, a couple of years
later, days after not making it to call-backs for "The Music Man,"
Stewart showed up to help build sets. He was immediately recruited to
help carry the pool table onstage during a chorus number. Somehow, he
wheedled his way into ALL the chorus numbers and slowly but surely entrenched
himself in both the theatre and music departments of his high school.
Midway through his junior year his voice began to develop into an unusually
strong and flexible instrument, and a career (such as it is) was born.
Since that time,
Stewart has appeared in well over 150 stage productions across the nation.
Musicals, operas, operettas, plays, concerts, melodramas, sketch comedy,
even some T.V. and film...but his guitar playing remained in the shadows
as a 'personal meditation' until about 6 or 7 years ago. He had sold
a Martin 12-string to fund his move to New York City in the early '90s,
then was given the Seagull 12-string, 'Gertrude', by his wife, Belle,
which rekindled a long-lost love for song-writing and playing the music
you hear on his CD.
His goals in life have been to finally become a good husband, a grandfather, a working actor and to become just famous enough to get invited to play golf in the old "Crosby Clambake" or the "Bob Hope Classic." Hopefully, this CD will bring him a few steps closer, though no one will have appreciated their anonymity more than Stewart..."It's About Time".
