Gary Stewart Posthumous Revival Led by New Biography, Dylan
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- Jimmy McDonough's biography "Gary Stewart: I Am from the Honky Tonks," which McDonough called the most difficult of his books to find a publisher for, became an unexpected critical and commercial hit after its November US publication by Wolf & Salmon.
- Delmore Recording Society released "One Track Mind," a collection of Stewart's early-1970s demos, while Sony moved his RCA catalog — including 1975 country No. 1 "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)" — to streaming services.
- Bob Dylan told the Guardian Stewart "sings like a man arguing with destiny," calling his music "cracked truth" — part of a small group of longtime admirers that also included Willie Nelson, John Waters and Tanya Tucker.
- Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band, Ella Langley, Zach Top, Wednesday's Karly Hartzman and Charley Crockett now cover Stewart's songs, an indie/country wave of championing the artist never enjoyed in his lifetime.
- Stewart's addiction-driven exile lasted 25 years in a blacked-out Florida trailer with wife Mary Lou; son Joey died by suicide in 1988 aged 25, Mary Lou fatally overdosed on November 26, 2003, and Stewart killed himself three weeks later.
- Stewart's daughter Shannon Ashburn — who once drove her overdosing mother to the hospital aged 12 — is publicly campaigning for her father's induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame and holds unreleased recordings she wants to release.
Why it matters: For a singer who died in a blacked-out Florida trailer 22 years ago, the rediscovery machinery is now visible on three fronts: daughter Shannon Ashburn is running a public Country Music Hall of Fame campaign, Sony is moving his RCA catalog to streaming, and a new generation of country acts are performing his material.
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