Johnny Stew Strikes Again!

If you were wondering why in my write-ups for the man, I occasionally refer to Lindsey Buckingham as Liddy Buck, it's all Johnny Stew's fault. Johnny Stew, as in John Stewart of course, godfather of modern folk rock with The Kingston Trio, folk-country rocker as a solo artist during the 1970s, then mainstream pop/rock champion for about a hot minute at the end of the decade. And who helped him (back) into the spotlight? Why, Liddy Buck, of course, willing to help out his idol from his teenage days. Buckingham produced Bombs Away Dream Babies, played a ton of guitar on it and added his vocals (together with Stevie Nicks') to "Gold", which dutifully became a Top 5 hit. 

If giving John Stewart some mainstream recognition from a crowd to whom he would more like a has been, Buckingham clarified his stance on his real solo debut with the song "Johnny Stew" (which I'm not a fan of). Stewart did him one better with one of my favorite sub-subgenres, the answer song. Stewart's number, "Liddy Buck", is a fantastic imitation of its subject circa Tusk - you could easily slot this into the Tusk line-up and, besides the slightly unusual lead vocals, everyone would take it for one of Lindsey's follies. There are a couple of other numbers, notably "High Flying Eagle" that have the same echo-y bouncy rhythm that Tusk era Liddy Buck was in love with. So Johnny Stew Strikes Again takes the idea of "Liddy Buck" to album length, by trying to pull the most New Wave-ish sounding tracks from Stewart's archives and imagine what a Stewart New Wave-ish answer to my Lindsey Buckingham alt album Not That Funny would look and sound like. 

Like fellow friendly neighbourhood bloggers Jonder and Koen I'm fascinated by artists who weren't initially New Wave trying their hand at a New Wave-ish sound, as evidenced by my comîlations on Martin Briley and Randy VanWarmer. Let's quickly temper expectations here, though. Sequencer or reverb neo-rockabilly guitar, Stewart is of course resolutely fok-rock, so he doesn't all of a sudden try to sound like Ric Ocasek or something. But the very 80s instrumentation and arrangements are clearly New Wave-adjacent, and it's interesting how Stewart takes a 19th Century traditional song like "Molly And Tenbrooks" and gives it new wheels for the 1980s. This is both synthetic and authentic-sounding at the same time, which is no small feat. Check out the update of the old Kingston Trio stalwart "The Escape Of Old John Webb" for more proof of that.

True to form, most songs have a 'get in, do some damage and get out' attitude, so only the two side openers crack the four minute mark, and most songs don't even make it to the three minute mark, having the whole album clock in at less that half an hour. So Johnny Stew Strikes Again is short and sweet, a solid blast of something that sounds both strangely familiar and excitingly fresh at the same time...