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Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)

27 Dec 15 - 02:33 PM (#3761138)
Subject: Obit: Andy M. Stewart
From: GUEST,Bob Pegritz

Andy M. Stewart passed away this morning. There will be additional information published later, but for now, I thought the community should know this.

Bob Pegritz

27 Dec 15 - 02:39 PM (#3761140)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart
From: Pat deVerse

Just heard this too via thesession.org....v sad

27 Dec 15 - 02:44 PM (#3761141)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart
From: Steve Shaw

Dammit, how sad is that. :-(

27 Dec 15 - 03:21 PM (#3761148)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart
From: Tattie Bogle

Just heard via a friend on Facebook: very sad news. Wasn't sure if he'd ever walk again though contributed to the fund, but didn't expect this. Great performer: feel privileged to have seen him live in fairly recent years, and to have a copy of his songbook. RIP Andy.

27 Dec 15 - 03:24 PM (#3761149)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart
From: maeve

Sad indeed- though perhaps a relief for him.

He's left us with so much wonderful music, and I am grateful.

27 Dec 15 - 03:42 PM (#3761153)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952 - 2015)
From: keberoxu

For what it's worth, his personal website is down altogether.

27 Dec 15 - 04:00 PM (#3761155)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952 - 2015)
From: GUEST,Shadow

So sad, my favourite singer.

27 Dec 15 - 05:07 PM (#3761165)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952 - 2015)
From: Hollowfox

I'm glad that he doesn't hurt anymore. Selfishly, my first thought was $#@!.

27 Dec 15 - 05:29 PM (#3761169)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952 - 2015)
From: gillymor

"He's left us with so much wonderful music, and I am grateful." You've echoed my feelings exactly, Maeve. RIP

27 Dec 15 - 07:00 PM (#3761181)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: Joe Offer

Oh, what a shame. I saw him perform only once, but he was very good. May he rest in peace.
-Joe-

27 Dec 15 - 07:01 PM (#3761183)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: GUEST,HiLo

Oh, very sad news indeed. Such loss, so sorry to hear this.

27 Dec 15 - 07:25 PM (#3761184)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: CupOfTea

What a lovely, lively, and delightful man he was! It is too sad that the end of his life came so young, and that the end of his years was ushered in with so much poor health.

The sound of his singing will make me happy to the end of my days, and I'll be picturing him as he was, all the times I heard him live. Condolences to his family, friends, musical collaborators, to whom this loss cuts closer to the bone. I know how the disorientation of a loved one's death this time of the year can be a lingering flavor to the holiday for years to come. I wish us all great memories of an inspired, joyful singer.

Joanne in Cleveland, Ohio/ Celtic Ceol concert series ca. 1990s

28 Dec 15 - 04:47 AM (#3761252)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: Amergin

The first time I met Andy, he was doing a show at the Alberta Street Pub in Portland, Oregon. He had a copy of his song book there, apparently, it was a display copy for pre-orders. The woman at the desk wasn't suppose to sell it. I found this out, when I brought it to him to sign. I felt bad, and would have given it back, but he took it, opened it, and signed his name, with a brief note saying, "This was MY copy."

Damn. He was one of my favourite singers, sometimes couldn't always understand him, because of that thick accent of his...but he was brilliant.

28 Dec 15 - 11:33 AM (#3761318)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: GUEST,Sheila Leary

If you're bent wi' arthiritis,
Your bowels have got colitis,
You've gallopin' bollockitis
And you're thinkin' it's time you died,
If you've been a man o' action,
Though you're lying there in traction,
You will get some satisfaction
Thinkin', "Jesus, at least I tried."

Farewell, Rambling Rover. Try you did. You brought beauty and joy to so many.
The Ramblin' Rover by Andy M. Stewart

28 Dec 15 - 12:58 PM (#3761335)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: GUEST,Marymac90

I was sad to hear of Andy's death this morning on the Roots show, which can be heard on the net weekdays from 9 to 11 am, eastern time, on WVUD.org   Same station also has REAL country, bluegrass, and old-timey on Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm. And every year on Jan 1, the anniversary of Hank Williams' death, they have an all-Hank show, this year I think from 9 to noon, (that's this coming Friday)!

But back to memories of Andy... Once, when my late father was visiting me in Philly, I took him to see Silly Wizard at the Cherry Tree Music Club. My family strongly identified with their Irish heritage. Irish music was what he believed he was hearing, and he LOVED it!

RIP, Andy...

28 Dec 15 - 01:48 PM (#3761352)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: Jim Dixon

Here's an article from HeraldScotland.com:

Tributes paid to Silly Wizard folk legend Andy M Stewart

28 Dec 15 - 09:35 PM (#3761423)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: GUEST,Bob Pegritz

Andy M. Stewart and Silly Wizard influenced me in the 1980's to pick up a whistle and learn to play. After getting to know Andy from his trips to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I wrote a tribute song. He heard it about a year ago and shed a tear, hopefully in approval. Here's the chorus:

Oh tell us again of the man on Loch Tay
Of princes and lovers and fire in the glen
Our own royal Stewart, the world now will say
Oh sing us another one, please, Andy M.

I will miss my friend.

29 Dec 15 - 03:05 AM (#3761442)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: GUEST,Daveb Hunt

Such a sad loss of a lovely man.....I knew him in Edinburgh in the 60s/70s Farewell....now at peace and free from pain at last RIP

29 Dec 15 - 05:15 AM (#3761468)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: Wolfgang

He has brought joy to us. Sadly missed.

Wolfgang

29 Dec 15 - 08:19 AM (#3761498)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: GUEST,Sol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aleyPzq_I8c
"Land O' The Leal" - Silly Wizard

29 Dec 15 - 03:15 PM (#3761576)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: Waddon Pete

We have lost another excellent singer and songwriter. I was very sorry to hear this news and send my condolences to all those who miss and love him. I have added his name to the "In Memoriam" thread.

RIP

Peter

29 Dec 15 - 03:18 PM (#3761578)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: maeve

Thank you, Peter.

29 Dec 15 - 07:17 PM (#3761612)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: GUEST

Aw... Dammit.

I hadn't heard him perform in quite a while, but I was blessed enough to have heard him live in several performances. He was a great singer, songwriter, and a gracious performer on stage.

01 Jan 16 - 08:50 PM (#3762258)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: GUEST,Kathleen Simpson

Condolences to his family.
Andy had a very special singing voice,
So sad .

02 Jan 16 - 08:52 PM (#3762459)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: Stilly River Sage

Obituary: Andy M. Stewart, singer and songwriter

Born: 8 September, 1952, in Alyth, Perthshire. Died: 27 December, 2015. Aged 63.

Andy M Stewart was a Scots singer and songwriter who was at the forefront of a resurgent contemporary Scottish folk scene in the 1970s as the voice of the Edinburgh-formed group Silly Wizard. In their early days the band held a residency at the small but popular Triangle Folk Club in the city, a Saturday night haunt which typified Edinburgh's rich folk scene of the time alongside venues like the Crown and Edinburgh Folk Club; at the height of their popularity they toured to great appreciation in Europe and the United States – and sold out an annual engagement at the Playhouse during the Edinburgh Festival.

The reasons for Silly Wizard's success were many, but easy to broadly sum up: on the one hand, the striking musical virtuosity of the prodigiously talented young brothers Johnny and Phil Cunningham from Portobello, on the other the marvellously soft but powerful vocal ability of Stewart, and in between the skills of key prime-era members Gordon Jones and Martin Hadden.

A well-spoken raconteur on the live stage, whose ability to introduce his songs informatively and with genuine humour enhanced the experience of hearing them, Stewart wrote music and lyrics which are – particularly in the case of his ballads – rich and still freshly emotive.

A skilled banjo player who used his middle initial to distinguish himself from the elder Scots singer who shared his name, Stewart's skills lay in interpreting Scottish folk standards and in writing additions to the canon which were at once traditional and modern. His songs ran a range of emotions from the delicate romance of The Queen of Argyll to the knowing humour of The Ramblin' Rover. Now he's gone, the latter's choral "if you've been a man of action / though you're lying there in traction / you will get some satisfaction / thinking 'Jesus, at least I tried'" lines are lent added poignancy.

Born in Alyth to a musical family, Stewart went to Blairgowrie High School, where his classmates included the future musicians and sometime Silly Wizard members Dougie MacLean (most famous now for his composition of the song Caledonia) and Hadden. As a means of combatting boredom, the trio and other friends played music together at school and each other's homes, and even as they listened to then relatively obscure Scottish folk, they also took influence from the growing Irish folk scene. Their young group Padden's Well played backing at a local folk club and toured their way around the Highlands.

At the same time, in Scotland's capital, Edinburgh University students Jones and Bob Thomas formed the basis of the band later known as Silly Wizard (named after their flatmate's in-the-works children's book). They added talented 15-year-old fiddle player Johnny Cunningham – then still at school, meaning the group would often have to drive all night to get him to the school gates in the morning after distant engagements.

Playing Edinburgh University Folk Club and also touring the Highlands, they briefly added a female singer named Maddy Taylor in 1972 and signed to Transatlantic Records, for whom they recorded a never-released album.

Regrouping following the album incident and Taylor's departure, the band decided to bolster their sound by adding a second guitarist and a more accomplished singer than Jones, who was uncertain about singing Scots songs in his Liverpudlian accent. Having previously played and become friends with the recently-split Padden's Well in Blairgowrie, they invited Stewart to take over on vocal duties, and he accepted.

Their self-titled debut album proper was released in 1976, and shortly after this the group settled into its classic core line-up of Stewart, Jones, Hadden, Johnny Cunningham and the latter's newly-recruited brother Phil, slimmed down to a quintet by Thomas's departure to get married and start a new career. Other sometime members included MacLean for a brief six months and the late Rezillos bassist Alasdair Donaldson.

In the 12 years that Stewart was the singer with Silly Wizard, they enjoyed enduring success on the folk scene – despite fans' initial wariness on account of their willingness to break the boundary regarding electric instruments, which traditionalists disliked.

They released nine albums between 1976 and 1988, including Caledonia's Hardy Sons in 1978, So Many Partings in 1980 and the more electronic A Glint of Silver in 1986, and notably recorded the theme song for Scots soap opera Take the High Road, a variation on Loch Lomond.

An engagement to play a modest show at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre in 1979 ended with the group being approached by an American booker – she got them 20 minutes on the bottom of the bill at that year's Philadelphia Folk Festival, and the reception they received encouraged them towards a new level of international success. They were arguably more popular in the US and Europe – particularly Germany – than at home, playing 200 gigs in one year at the height of their success.

When Silly Wizard split unannounced in 1988 after a successful US tour, it was as a result of mutual belief that they had taken the band as far as it would go, rather than any commercial waning. In the decade which followed, Stewart released four solo albums (By the Hush, Songs of Robert Burns, Man in the Moon and Donegal Rain), and later three more in collaboration with Manus Lunny of Capercaillie – Fire in the Glen (featuring Phil Cunningham), Dublin Lady and At It Again. In later years Stewart, now based in Stow in the Borders, combined music with lighting design for stage and television.

In a sad final act to a life of musical accomplishment and pleasure for his listeners, Stewart last hit the headlines in March 2015, when his sister Angie announced that he was paralysed from the chest down as a result of medical difficulties including failed spinal surgery in 2012. Her attempt to crowdfund care for her brother was met with a generous response, but just nine months later Stewart died in hospital after suffering a stroke and a bout of pneumonia.

"I suppose I'd like a legacy really of just being remembered fondly by whomever, my friends and the folk I left behind," Stewart told folk magazine Dirty Linen in 1991. "It would be nice for them to remember me in a positive way. It would be nice for my songs to survive. It would be nice for my family. I'd like them to last."

He is survived by his son.

03 Jan 16 - 02:26 AM (#3762478)
Subject: RE: Obit: Andy M. Stewart (1952-2015)
From: gillymor

Thanks for that obit.

The Humours of Whiskey Andy with Manus Lunny.