Search - John Stewart & Darwin's Army :: John Stewart & Darwin's Army

In the 30 years between leaving the Kingston Trio in 1968 and recording this CD, singer-songwriter John Stewart has played with many fine backing musicians on stage and in the studio. But Darwin?s Army was Stewart?s first real group effort since the Trio, positioning himself as chief among equals in this project spotlighting many classic folk songs, both traditional and contemporary. "I missed singing in a group, missed being one of three or four people singing together," Stewart explains. "Certainly this is a sound I personally wanted to get back to." So Stewart recruited wife and longtime singing partner Buffy Ford Stewart and rising young singer-songwriter-musicians Dave Crossland and John Hoke to tackle material as old as "Wild Mountain Thyme" and "Twelve Gates to the City," as nouveau classic as Bob Dylan?s "My Back Pages" and Tim Hardin?s "Reason to Believe," as surprising as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "They Call the Wind Mariah," and as recent as Paul Simon?s "Boy in the Bubble," Crossland?s "Blood in the Fields," and Hoke?s "Dreamland." "The origin of a lot of the songs goes back to the Weavers and Pete Seeger," says Stewart, which helps explain why John broke out his banjo for some of the tunes, while adding his guitar and bass to others. Hoke contributes guitar and percussion, Crossland plays guitar, and Ford sings backing vocals and the occasional lead, as do Hoke and Crossland. The quartet spans generations and musical boundaries with its renditions of songs old and new, with each cover version unlocking a fading memory of the original and appending an energetic freshness. "We?ve been told that it?s not folk," explains Ford, regarding the newer songs. "Some people believe that unless it?s a classic old song, it?s not folk. That?s bull. Folk music is written every day. Folk music grows."