Big fan of John Stewart, from his time in 1968 with campaign of Robert Kennedy. Loved his later song about Jimmy Carter "Promise The Wind." My favourite album was the double disc released by Bear Records in Germany of the 1974 Phoenix Concert sessions. It is one of the superior live albums in popular music, lots of great musicians and Buffy Ford at her peak. Everything was there the epic "Pirates of Stone County Road, the even more epic "Mother Country," "Cody," "California Bloodlines" "You Cant Look Back," "July You're A Woman."

California Bloodlines was a great pioneering album in late 1960s, which I have owned in LP, cassette and CD format.

As an Irish citizen I first remember John Stewart as a member of the Kingston Trio because they had a big hit with Dominic Behan's political song "The Patriot Game." Here in Ireland it was the late Bill Graham who first brought Stewart to wider popular appeal through his writing in Hot Press (music fans will know that Bill Graham also earns special mention from U2 on several of the albums). Sandy Harsch also devoted her radio programme to John Stewart on Saturday January 26th 2008 (rte.ie - radio one - programme: Country Time - Saturday schedule)

Anyway, my abiding memory of John Stewart is of first hearing "California Bloodlines," each track better than the other but of him spelling out that great story of old man going blind - E. A. Stuart "spelled S-T-U-A-R-T" as he prepares for a final encounter with his beloved horses in "Mother Country." Real writing. Rest easy. Fan: Eugene McGloin, Sligo. Ireland