Tag Archives: Stew

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Song of the Day #930: ‘She’s Really Daddy Feelgood’ – Stew

The year 2000 marked the release of Stew’s first solo album, or rather the first album Stew released under his own name rather than his band’s.

Guest Host is different from the first two Negro Problem albums… less hectic, less all over the place. It’s more of a smooth soul album, with some jazzy elements thrown in for good measure.

It’s also damn good, probably the best thing he’d recorded to that point. Entertainment Weekly called it the best album of the year, a fact that somehow escaped me at the time.

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Song of the Day #474: ‘Ken’ – The Negro Problem

stew_color_front_shotStew — the creative mind behind The Negro Problem, three solo albums and the Broadway musical Passing Strange (soon to be released in film version by Spike Lee) — is a fine example of somebody who practices songwriting as both an art and a craft.

I compare him to Ben Folds in that sense. These are people for whom lyrics and melodies are as natural a language as their mother tongue. They are capable of crafting a tune that plumbs the deepest emotions but also spinning off a catchy number on the fly about a roadie they saw trip backstage.

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Song of the Day #205: ‘The Sun I Always Wanted’ – Stew

stew21I’ve always disliked Valentine’s Day. It’s the ultimate commercial holiday, designed to do nothing more than sell flowers and candy. Fortunately my wife feels the same way.

And yet, two of the most significant moments in our lives took place on February 14. The first was our engagement. I asked Alex to marry me on Valentine’s Day of 1996, coincidentally for the most part. We had bought the engagement ring a few days earlier and had planned to dine out that night, so I dropped on one knee during a stroll on South Beach and popped the question.

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