John Stewart

John Coburn Stewart (September 5, 1939 – January 19, 2008) was an American songwriter and singer. He is known for his contributions to the American folk music movement of the 1960s while with the Kingston Trio (1961–1967) and as a popular music songwriter of songs performed by the Monkees, as well as his own No. 5 hit "Gold" during a solo career spanning 40 years that included almost four dozen albums and more than 600 recorded songs.

Born in San Diego, Stewart was the son of horse trainer John S. Stewart and spent his childhood and adolescence in Southern California, living mostly in the cities of Pasadena and Claremont. He graduated in 1957 from Pomona Catholic High School, which at the time was a coeducational school. Following graduation from high school, Stewart went on to attend Mt. San Antonio Junior College in Walnut, California, during 1957–1958, when he was active in its music and theater programs.

Stewart demonstrated an early talent for music, learning the guitar and banjo. He composed his first song, "Shrunken Head Boogie," when he was ten years old. In an interview in Michael Oberman's 'Music Makers' column (The Washington Star) on 30 October 1971, Stewart said, "I bought a ukulele when I was in Pasadena. I would listen to Sons of the Pioneers records. Tex Ritter really turned me on to music. 'I Love My Rooster' was Top Ten as far as I was concerned." John Stewart was a friend of Frank Zappa in the late 1950s. They both attended Pomona High School in California, where Zappa taught Stewart the chords to "The Streets of Laredo".

Stewart's first venture into popular music was with a high school garage band known as Johnny Stewart and the Furies. Influenced by the reigning icons of the day, Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, the Furies toured southern California colleges and coffee houses, releasing one single in 1957, "Rockin' Anna," which was a minor regional hit.

Following the breakup of the Furies and a short time as a member of the Woodsmen, Stewart teamed with Gil Robbins (father of actor Tim Robbins) and John Montgomery to form the Cumberland Three, a group patterned after and heavily influenced by the increasingly popular Kingston Trio. The major accomplishment of the Cumberland Three was a two-LP set of Songs from the Civil War, with the albums containing a compilation of songs from the Confederacy and the Union, respectively. In all, the Cumberland Three released three albums after which Stewart left the group to join the Kingston Trio, replacing Trio founder Dave Guard in 1961.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.