Sound Advice: Al Stewart Brings Contemporary Troubadour Tunes to Cincinnati's Memorial Hall

Al Stewart plays Memorial Hall on Aug. 16. Photo: Elaborating, Wikimedia Commons

This story is featured in CityBeat’s Aug. 9 print edition.

Most folk-pop songwriters explore the big human themes — love and loss, romantic longing, time’s inevitable march toward mortality. And British balladeer Al Stewart does, too. But he often explores those themes through stories and people pulled from history.

Has anyone else sung about French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre? I can’t recall any contemporary troubadours covering former presidents William McKinley and Warren Harding or midcentury British pilot Amy Johnson. For those tales, we have to go to Stewart.

“To me, without bringing a historical perspective into anything you write, it’s only skin deep,” Stewart explained in a 2018 interview with the Cape Cod Times. “I made a forte out of history because I read history. It was second nature to me.”

Born in Scotland, raised in England and now based in Los Angeles, Stewart began his career as part of the British folk movement in the 1960s. It’s been many years since his biggest hit, “Year of the Cat,” dominated airwaves back in 1976, but if his songs often explore the past, he’s focused today on the present, as he continues to tour America and Europe with his band, The Empty Pockets.

On the current tour, he gives fans a mix of new and old, drawing heavily on the hits of his popular heyday, including “On the Border,” “Time Passages,” “Flying Sorcery” and, of course, “Year of the Cat.” From his most recent studio album, Sparks of Ancient Light, he offers the sweetly fetching, keenly observed “(A Child’s View of) the Eisenhower Years.” Who but Al Stewart could write such a song?

Al Stewart plays Memorial Hall at 8 p.m. Aug. 16. Info: memorialhallotr.com.

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