MUSIC
An “Old Florida” Treasure... On the Treasure Coast
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recording with a small label.
“I knew he had the personality and the voice. I knew one
day he was going to be a star.”
Schwartz had gone into the Air Force in 1971 and when he
came back to Fort Pierce four years later, “I got home just in
time for Gary to hit it big. He was playing with Charley Pride
at the time.”
Schwartz performed with Stewart many times on guitar,
bass and piano. When by the early 1980s Stewart had tired of
going to Nashville to record, he’d rehearse and record demos
at a studio at Schwartz’s house.
“Sometimes he’d call me in the middle of the night and say,
‘I’m gonna get something down. If I don’t get it down now I
will forget it.’ He’d show up after I put up the equipment.”
MEETING MEL
A native of Jenkins, Ky., Stewart moved to Fort Pierce at
age 15 with his family in 1959. He learned to play guitar and
piano, later playing in local clubs and writing songs. He met
country singer Mel Tillis at the Wagon Wheel in Okeechobee.
Tillis suggested he pitch his songs in Nashville. Stewart and
writing partner Bill Eldridge had some song successes with
such artists as Stonewall Jackson and Nat Stuckey.
But it was his return to Fort Pierce and his love for the
honky-tonk genre that inspired Out of Hand, now considered
a country classic. While the Wayne Carson-penned She’s
Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles) hit No. 1 on Billboard’s
country chart, Out of Hand reached No. 4 and Drinkin’ Thing
went to No. 10. The album reached No. 6 on the chart.
County music critic Bill Malone called Out of Hand “one of
the greatest honky-tonk country albums ever recorded.”
Stewart received similar critical acclaim for the album
Your Place or Mine in 1977. In 1980, he released Cactus and a
Rose, which included Southern rockers Gregg Allman and
Dickey Betts.
In the years that followed, Stewart continued to shun
the traditional attention of fame, preferring to tour clubs
throughout the country where his core audience grew stronger.
Bob Dylan even told him while touring in Florida in the
1990s that Ten Years Of This, written by Stewart and Wayne
H I S T O R I C
LITTLE JIM
BAIT & TACKLE
— Est. 1944 —
Beer • Bait • Food • Music • Fun
Open 7 Days
601 N. Beach Causeway, Fort Pierce 772.468.2503
>>
Gary wasn’t a biker, but decided to hop on at a friend’s home.
/www.fortpiercefarmersmarket.com