‘Punch the Big Guy’ Album Keeps John Stewart Fans Happy

At his April performance at New York’s Bottom Line, John Stewart joked, “I’m going on the Oprah Winfrey Show next week as one of those singers who won’t go away.”

With his resonant voice, which can throb with present urgency or echo with regret for past losses, a devoted group of listeners doesn’t want John Stewart to go away.

For them--and new listeners are welcome--Stewart has a new album, “Punch the Big Guy.” After writing its 10 songs, he asked his 7-year-old son Luke what the name of the album should be. Luke came back, without a moment’s pause, with “Punch the Big Guy.” “I don’t know what it means,” Stewart said. “And he doesn’t either.”

Stewart is a big man but he is sure his son meant a threatening figure and not Dad. “I’m not inviting any punches.” Stewart also has three grown children and a grandchild.

He has been performing since 1960, has made three records with John Montgomery and Gil Robbins as the Cumberland Three, has replaced Dave Guard in the Kingston Trio and was on 13 records with Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, from 1961 through 1966.

His first record after that was “Signals Through the Glass,” with Buffy Ford. They have been married for the last 11 years. She sings on one track, “Night of a Distant Star,” on his new album. Rosanne Cash sings on two, “Price of the Fire” and “Angels with Guns.” A John Stewart song, “Runaway Train,” will be the next single from her “King’s Record Shop” album.

“I’ve always written,” Stewart said. “I always thought, ‘What am I going to write about?’ One day a year ago I started to write what I was thinking about instead. All these songs came pouring out.”

The first one was “Botswana,” Stewart said. “As a writer you try to write how to deal with that. The song is about not dealing with it and how you really can’t deal with it.

“Some songs come through you like you were a radio receiver. All of these did that. They were gifts, I guess. I wrote them very quickly. The songs you labor over seem to not be as good.”

One song he wrote, “Sweet Dreams Will Come,” was a duet with Texas folk singer Nanci Griffith. “It was going to be on ‘Punch the Big Guy,”’ Stewart said. “It seemed to fit her ‘Little Love Affairs’ album better.

“She’s just now getting the recognition she deserves. I’ve known her for 17 years, I think. Perseverance is the most important ingredient in trying to be a musician or writer. If you don’t go away, they can’t ignore you. You wear them down.”

Stewart’s biggest hit song has been “Daydream Believer,” a No. 1 hit for the Monkees worldwide and a country hit which crossed over to pop for Anne Murray. “The royalties have kept me alive,” he said.

His fans most often ask for “July You’re a Woman.” He said: “It was on the chart six times by different people, but it was never a big hit. Everybody did that song from Pat Boone to Robert Goulet to Eddie Arnold.”

“Mother Country” is another Stewart song that fans think was a hit and wasn’t. But “Gold” was, in 1979. He said: “The album on RSO, ‘Bombs Away Dream Babies,’ was a Top 10 album and it had ‘Gold,’ a Top 5 single, and two Top 20 singles, ‘Midnight Wind’ and ‘Lost Here in the Sun.’

“It is real easy to hear a hit after it is a hit. It is very hard to hear it before it is. I took ‘Daydream Believer’ to a lot of groups, and they passed on it. I was convinced ‘Dreamers on the Rise’ on ‘The Last Campaign’ album would be a hit. I sent it to Anne Murray. She sent it back.”

After recording solo albums for Capitol, Warner Bros., RCA and RSO through 1980, Stewart had no record deal. So he set up Homecoming Records. He makes his own records and sells them at gigs, through a few distributors and as imports abroad but most through mail order. He has a list of 6,000 fans.

“Punch the Big Guy” is on the Ship Records, which Stewart owns. It operates under the umbrella of Cypress Records, which is distributed by A & M Records. He calls it “a whole new lease on life for me.”

Stewart decided several years ago that singer-songwriters who had their own record companies could band together and go to a major label for distribution. He said: “Adult record buyers didn’t leave music when teen-age dance music came in. They made tapes of their old Creedence Clearwater Revival records and played them in their cars.

“Wyndham Hill Records came along. It was said it couldn’t work because you can’t get those records played on the radio. But where there’s a hole, the water will rush in. A group of adult record buyers wanted their own music and bought Wyndham Hill.

“On the heels of this came Peter Gabriel, Sting, Dire Straits, with enough meat on their music that adult record buyers could find some food value there. I think there’s as much good music now as in the ‘60s. There’s U2, Paul Simon, Stevie Winwood, Suzanne Vega, Lyle Lovett. The new Joni Mitchell album is really good.”

He added, “The adult buyer is back in the store.”

Stewart almost made a distribution deal with EMI America Records. He went to A & M, which said “no” but signed John Hiatt, one of his artists.

Then he went to Cypress Records, whose first release was Jennifer Warnes’ “Famous Blue Raincoat.” Stewart said: “If there is one thing you can’t get played on the radio it is Leonard Cohen songs. But they had a vocalist with ability and a writer with substance. They were able to sell more than 300,000 copies.”

The Ship found its harbor with Cypress. Stewart used Cypress’ digital 24-track machine to record a show at the Crazy Horse in Santa Ana last September. “I’m waiting to get the money to mix it; I hope to have it out in the near future,” he said. The Ship has two more releases scheduled for this year, but Stewart and Cypress haven’t yet agreed on who will make them.