Join us for a performance from singer/song writer/guitarist Will Stewart and pedal steel player Ford Boswell as they play songs from Stewart's vast catalog in a stripped down duo version.
\nAs one of the brightest and most prolific new songwriters to emerge f rom the Birmingham music scene over the past few years\, Will Stewart has made a name for himself as both an imaginative storyteller and six string gunslinger whose detailed accounts of life around the Deep South seem to c apture the essence of not just the humid\, kudzu-covered environs they com e out of\, but also the creative cultural milieu that makes such narrative s possible in the first place. Taking cues from everyone from Big Star and R.E.M.\, to Phosphorescent and the Drive-By Truckers\, and even classic S outhern literary figures like Eudora Welty and Barry Hannah\, Stewart has managed to carve out a place for himself as a conjurer of time\, place and characters&mdash\; and the stories that swirl around them&mdash\; in a wa y that&rsquo\;s simultaneously reflective\, empathetic and unapologetic in their presentation.
\nNow on his fourth solo LP\, over his past thr ee studio efforts Stewart has shown a deft touch for not just engaging cha racter arcs and succinct studies in the human condition\, but also a range of musical modes that span everything from quiet dissertations on love an d loss\, to brash rockers and moody explorations of the complicated nature of modern Southern living. As someone who also wears the hat of a highly sought after sideman who lends his talents to friends and fellow travelers like Birmingham locals The Blips\, Terry Ohms and Sarah Lee Langford\, th ere are few sonic spaces that Stewart&rsquo\;s hands haven&rsquo\;t touche d in some way\, whether it&rsquo\;s blasting out amped-up garage rock or e liciting evocative and hushed guitar stylings for his longtime collaborato r Janet Simpson.
\nReleasing his first album on local Birmingham lab el Earth Libraries after several years working with Cornelius Chapel Recor ds\, Stewart&rsquo\;s newest offering sees him poised to deliver his most ambitious project yet\, with a 10-track song cycle centered around the ico nic\, and now defunct\, Moon Winx Lodge in Tuscaloosa\, AL\, and some of t he characters and scenarios&mdash\; both real and imagined&mdash\; that ha ve played themselves out there over the years. Weaving a compelling throug h line that simultaneously ties together true historical events&mdash\; li ke the time Alabama jazz legend Sun Ra stayed at the lodge during a legend ary three night run at The Chukker and the Arkestra were seen trying the w hite bread and ribs at Dreamland BBQ&mdash\; with made-up personas and hum an drama that exists only in Stewart&rsquo\;s imagined mythology\, Moon Wi nx threads the needle between fact and fiction like the best in Southern l iterature\, and all wrapped up in the geographical vernacular of rock\, co untry and rhythm and blues.
\nKicking things off with the chronicall y addled and romantically reckless &ldquo\;Penny\,&rdquo\; the LP careens from ecstatic to serene\, comical and sad\, and otherworldly and oppressiv e in equal measure\, as Stewart takes full stock of the lodge&rsquo\;s uni que clientele. From the hazy Tom Waits-inspired atmospherics of &ldquo\;Mi ghty Fine\,&rdquo\; to the juiced up JJ Cale blues boogie of &ldquo\;Fireb ird Fever\,&rdquo\; the early Wilco/hipster dad rock of &ldquo\;Regulars\, &rdquo\; or the updated\, ambient take on the Velvets/Modern Lovers odes t o the power of the FM dial on &ldquo\;Til We Hear The Radio\,&rdquo\; the album sometimes reads more like a collection of short stories set to music than your standard rock LP\, which is all part of its charm and allure. A nd starting in 2025\, people can finally step into Stewart&rsquo\;s world themselves\, and bring their own impressions as to the who/what/why and wh ere of life at the Moon Winx Lodge\, which is how it should be and all par t of the fun anyway. As Flannery Conner once famously wrote in \;Wise Blood\, &ldquo\;Where you come from is gone\, where you thought you were g oing to was never there\, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place. Nothing outs ide you can give you any place... In yourself right now is all the place y ou've got.&rdquo\; And that\, dear reader\, is exactly the space where the Moon Winx Lodge has resided all along.
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