Search - John Stewart :: Complete Phoenix Concerts

Complete Phoenix Concerts
John Stewart
Complete Phoenix Concerts
Genres: Folk, Pop, Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (18) - Disc #1


     
?

Larger Image

CD Details

All Artists: John Stewart
Title: Complete Phoenix Concerts
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Bear Family
Release Date: 6/27/1994
Album Type: Live
Genres: Folk, Pop, Rock
Styles: Traditional Folk, Contemporary Folk, Adult Contemporary, Singer-Songwriters, Soft Rock, Folk Rock
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 4000127155184, 790051155186
 

CD Reviews

Idealized Images of America from an Unknown Living Legend
dev1 | Baltimore | 06/26/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)

"One cannot consider The Complete Phoenix Concerts as a pre-1975 John Stewart Greatest Hits package because John doesn't have any hits. These are the compositions that made John an unknown living legend and a secret American icon. Over the past four decades, his fans have followed him through various musical styles ; their devotion never wavering. Eighteen tracks of country, folk and rock from a singer/songwriter wearing cowboy boots and hat. The Complete Phoenix Concerts is the culmination of an illustrative musical style which opened the door for the Texas school of songwriters: Nancy Griffith, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Earle and Joe Ely. Compositions telling John's story in sketches, words and images.There's a ghost of something lost long ago running through each of his songs. The ghost is always there - you can feel it in your bones. Perhaps it's the ghost of barefooted ladies treated with dignity and respect (Wheatfield Lady, The Runaway Fool Of Love, July Your A Woman), or the ghost of quiet and simple small towns displaced by the interstate (Kansas Rain, The Pirates Of Stone County Road, Oldest Living Son), or the ghost of an optimistic search for humane ethics and a code of morals (You Can't Look Back, Little Road And A Stone To Roll, Freeway Pleasure). Then again, maybe it's the ghost of a topic not taught in public schools today - patriotism (Roll Away The Stone, The Last Campaign Trilogy, Mother Country). John Stewart's idealized images of America are not popular, but should anyone expect less from an unknown living legend.Technical note: Considering this is a 1974 analog recording of a live concert, the sound is surprisingly professional. Credit Bear Family of Germany for another quality CD reissue."
I know I'm living in the past with this but . . .
G. Zaehringer | Ventura, California United States | 01/31/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)

". . . what a GREAT album this was - and it was live. I have no idea what made me buy this when it first came out - I wasn't familiar with the guy - but I fell in love with this album and played it death and NO ONE at my east coast college cared a whit about it (my roommate was very into Queen). My God, it was 28 years ago! For some reason whenever I see Harrison Ford I think of John Stewart. This is a type of music and songwriting that a lot of critics would hate, it draws heavily on the past and is in many ways derivative, but what a TERRIFIC derivative. To this day, almost 30 years later, I still find myself singing, "Mississippi boy, learning how to live on the road . . ." There are 292 million people in the USA and about 291,500,000 are worse off for never having heard this album."
You can't go back to Kansas
sheila.browne@virgin.net | Coventry UK | 12/21/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"In July 1975 Noel Edmonds, the breakfast DJ on National Radio 1 here in the UK, made " July, You're a Woman " his record of the week. It didn't make it a chart topper,but it did make me go out and by this album. I virtually wore out my vinyl copy over the next 23 years and replaced it with CD at the end of 1998. I have played this album in one format or another every week since 1975 and never tired of it. I just wish I'd been there...Classic songs that are nostalgic without becoming dated and that still make me think new things, even after all these years. For me John Stewart is the greatest of the American singer songwriters and this album is one of his best. Listen, marvel and then explore the rest of his oeuvre."