There was a time that John Stewart shared a booking agent and, maybe a manager, with Tom Waits. John and Tom were friends and there are some great stories about this friendship.

John was aware that he was sometimes influenced by people that he knew and listened to and, at a certain point in his career he stopped listening to music done by his peers. One of the albums that sat on the shelf for many years was known as The Piano Album. The history behind it is long and nasty and I won’t go into it here. Tom DeLisle wrote some great liner notes for the cd that was released after John’s passing. The cover is also one of my favorite John Stewart pictures; shot by the great photographer (and human) Henry Diltz.

John and I discussed releasing the cd for many years but never quite agreed to do it. He had bad memories of dealing with the record companies during this period and I believe that was the major reason for his reluctance. After his passing, I dusted off the project and took it to Buffy for approval and she agreed that it needed to be heard.

Here is one song from the album. One of my favorites called New Orleans.