Gary Stewart is an American country musician and songwriter from Jenkins, Kentucky, in Letcher County. He is one of the first so-called outlaw country performers of the 1970s and is known for country and honky tonk music, especially drinking songs.

Early life and beginnings

Stewart is born in 1944 and grows up in Jenkins, the son of a coal miner. After his father is injured in a mining accident in 1958, the family moves to Fort Pierce on Florida’s Atlantic coast. Stewart begins recording at twelve and later turns to songwriting. He marries Mary Lou Taylor when he is seventeen.

While playing a honky-tonk club in Okeechobee, Florida, called the Wagon Wheel, he meets country singer Mel Tillis, who advises him to go to Nashville to pitch his songs. He records for the small Cory label in 1964.

Songwriting and Nashville work

In Nashville, Jerry Bradley, son of producer Owen Bradley, works with Stewart and his collaborator Bill Eldridge to refine their songs. In 1965, Stonewall Jackson records their song “Poor Red Georgia Dirt,” which reaches the country charts. Stewart later writes songs that are recorded by Carl Smith, Billy Walker and Nat Stuckey.

He is signed to Kapp Records in 1968 and makes several unsuccessful recordings there before being dropped, and later dropped by Decca as well. He then makes demo tapes that reach producer Roy Dea, who signs him to RCA Records.

RCA years and commercial peak

Stewart’s work with RCA produces his best-known hits, including “Drinkin’ Thing,” “Out of Hand,” and “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles),” which becomes his only number-one song. Other songs from his most commercially successful period, from 1974 to 1977, include “Flat Born Natural Good Timin’ Man,” “In Some Room Above the Street,” and “Your Place or Mine.”

His recordings combine barely controlled vocals, rock-and-roll-style instrumentation, and a classic sound that draws on both 1950s country and rockabilly. By the late 1970s he no longer sells records in the same numbers as before, but recordings from this period, including “Single Again,” are often regarded as some of his strongest work.

Live band and touring

During the 1970s and into the 1980s, Stewart plays with Aberdeen Rockfish Railroad, which he calls the Honky Tonk Liberation Army. The group includes Donnie Coleman, Chris Casses, Bob Melton, Darrell Dawson, Howie Folcarelli and Ralph Profetta. They tour and perform with him, sing backing vocals on RCA releases including “Easy People,” “Can’t You See” and “Pretend I Never Happened,” and play on unreleased songs recorded at Bradley’s Barn. The group is nominated for Instrumental Group of the Year by Country Music Magazine and helps shape Stewart’s raw live sound.

Despite drug and alcohol problems in the 1980s, Stewart continues touring the honky tonk circuit with his wife through the 1990s, including regular appearances at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth.

Later recordings and death

Stewart records Cactus and a Rose with producer Chips Moman in 1980 and later leaves RCA for the Hightone label, where he records Brand New in 1988. In 2003 he releases the live album Live at Billy Bob’s Texas.

He dies in Fort Pierce, Florida, in 2003. His career is later regarded more highly by critics, and he is associated with the outlaw country movement even though he does not fit neatly into either Nashville country or Southern rock.