Gary Stewart (1944-2003) is a peculiar figure in country music history. A gifted songwriter whose tunes were often recorded by other performers to considerable commercial success, he has always been somewhat overlooked as an artist in his own right.

Bob Dylan has been vocal about his admiration of Stewart. Luminaries like Emmylou Harris, Nicolette Larson, Rodney Crowell and members of The Allman Brothers guested on his recordings. His 1975 album Out of Hand is thought by many critics be one of the great country records of all time. He was dubbed “The King of the Honky Tonks,” due to both his songwriting style and penchant for playing in clubs. All this, yet he was never a household name like contemporaries such as Waylon Jennings or Willie Nelson. Was it that he was “too rock for country audiences and too country for the rock crowd,” as has been suggested? If that was his biggest fault, he could have considered himself on a par with the likes of Gram Parsons.

Delmore Recording Society’s deeply archived compilation One Track Mind brings out a full-length album’s worth of Stewart’s earliest recordings. Captured on tape before he emerged as a solo artist making records for RCA, these are intimate, barebones takes of his tunes at a time when Stewart had recently relocated to Nashville from Florida to pitch his wares to publishing companies. All previously unreleased, the cuts include songwriter demos, home recordings, and an acetate.

<a href="https://delmorerecordings.com/album/one-track-mind">One Track Mind by Gary Stewart</a>

The selections include a nice balance of gentle ballads and rollicking stompers. Emotive pedal steel figures prominently in the backing tracks, but the instrumentation is mostly a subtle backdrop for the vocals. Stewart was an excellent storyteller with a knack for clever wordplay. He could perfectly encapsulate the complications of a romantic relationship in a two- or three-minute ditty. He did a fantastic job of writing about heartaches and frustrations of love with pure feeling yet with some sly humor. And he wasn’t just a one-subject tunesmith who could only write about the travails of romance. “Big Bad Train,” which you could imagine Johnny Cash singing, is about a guy who has the misfortune of a train’s route going through his back yard, disrupting his quality of life. “Iron Bar Motel,” which wouldn’t have been out of place on a Charlie Rich album, tells of a fella who’s just a little too lawless in his adventures and lands in the pokey.

Stewart’s singing style is unusual with its vibrato leanings. For this listener, his voice often conjures that of George Jones. There’s that same combination of smokiness and twang. One could easily imagine old “No-Show” belting out any of these numbers. The two also had a similar songwriting range. Think of Jones segueing from a fun rocker like “White Lightning” to a tearjerker ballad such as “Take Me,” and you’ll have a sense of Stewart’s scope.

In all, this collection provides a clear, intimate look at the early work of one of the most distinctive artists in the county music canon. Fans of Stewart should also take note that Jimmy McDonough, one of the great biographers of performing artists in our times, recently published a lengthy book about Stewart, titled Gary Stewart: I am From the Honky Tonks. This new collection of Stewart’s early work pairs perfectly with the biography.

Brian Greene