Al Stewart

Al Stewart crafted his sound between folk and rock, but with a twist that made him unique: his songs didn’t just tell stories; they wove them with threads from history itself. He wasn’t a mere narrator; his lyrics wandered through Napoleonic wars, broken loves, or nights in London cafés with the same ease as others sang about love or heartbreak. That blend—between the intimate and the epic—ended up defining his style: a folk-rock where acoustic chords tangled with arrangements that sometimes sounded like time travel.

What began as a guy playing in bars in Bournemouth ended up taking him to the biggest stages. His leap didn’t come with just any album, but with Year of the Cat, a record that in 1976 put him on the international map. The song that gives it its name wasn’t just a hit; it sold millions of copies and became his calling card. But before that, there were years of sweat in clubs like Bunjies Coffee House in Soho, where he shared the stage with legends like Cat Stevens or Bert Jansch. He even rubbed shoulders with John Lennon backstage in Bournemouth, when The Beatles were playing there in 1963. Stewart, just eighteen years old, snuck backstage pretending to be a Rickenbacker rep to meet his idols. Lennon, laughing, let him play his black guitar.