Complete Phoenix Concerts [Live]

John Stewart | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 27, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Bear Family
• ASIN: B000001AX4
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,705 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #37 in Music > Indie Music > Pop > Soft Rock
  • #76 in Music > Indie Music > Pop > Adult Contemporary
  • #95 in Music > Indie Music > Pop > Singer-Songwriters

Track Listings

1. Wheatfield Lady

2. Kansas Rain

3. You Can't Look Back

4. The Pirates of Stone County Road

5. The Runaway Fool of Love

6. Roll Away the Stone

7. July, You're a Woman

8. The Last Campaign Trilogy

9. Oldest Living Son

10. Little Rode and a Stone to Roll

11. Kansas

12. Cody

13. California Bloodlines

14. Mother Country

15. Cops

16. Never Goin' Back

17. Freeway Pleasure

18. Let the Big Horse Run

Editorial Reviews

Thanks to DJ Bill Campton, ex-Kingston Trio singer/songwriter John Stewart's music was big in Phoenix in 1974, so producer Nik Venet had Stewart take a band there and record a 'live' album of hits and some new songs at the Phoenix Symphony Hall in March 1974. Backed by by a hot band from Los Angeles, Stewart proved himself a crowd-pleaser, and the resultant 18-song album is a looser and more animated country rock collection than Stewart's studio albums. Titles include Wheatfield Lady, Kansas Rain, Roll Away The Stone, July You're A Woman, Cody, Freeway Pleasure, and Let The Big Horse Run. CD comes with 28-page booklet. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Idealized Images of America from an Unknown Living Legend, June 25, 2000

By 

dev1 (Baltimore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Phoenix Concerts (Audio CD)

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.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I know I'm living in the past with this but . . ., January 31, 2004

By 

G. Zaehringer (Ventura, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Complete Phoenix Concerts (Audio CD)

. . . 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.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Moment in Time, November 18, 2006

By 

Tom Schusterbauer (West Bloomfield, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Phoenix Concerts (Audio CD)

My 38-year-old son likes to say that Guy Clark, James Talley, John Prine, Steve Goodman, and John Stewart were the soundtrack of his life from his birth until he was thirteen or fourteen. True enough. Mostly, however, it was John Stewart.

This is hardly an original thought, but Stewart deserves so much better a fate than he has received. Always recognized by musicians and critics as one of America's true national treasures, he has labored for the past 40 years to a cult following, loyal to the bone, but hardly the size of the following that he has earned.

If you have never heard him, then this is where to start. I was sitting in a small college club on the night when he and his bass player, Arnie "Wide load" Moore were looking over the proofs for this album's cover. And, as with all John Stewart shows, it was sly, at times truly rocking, and, at times, intensely personal. The album is all of that and more.

Stewart covers a lot of territory here, mainly from his first three or four solo albums, after he left the Kingston Trio. He was almost a superstar in Phoenix at the time, so the crowd feeds off him, and he and his friends return the favor. Some of his lyrics and some of his patter make the audience laugh and hoot. At other times, the auditorium is almost preternaturally quiet, as Stewart moves poetically and dramatically through "The Pirates of Stone County Road."

But for me, this recording's version of what I think is his finest song--"Mother Country"--is a golden moment, filled with wistfulness, nostalgia, some melancholy, but ultimately vibrating with the hope of the human spirit. Stewart first recorded this song on his critically acclaimed album, California Bloodlines. But by the time of this concert, he had expanded the lyrics, and had, I think, discovered the true depth and drama of this piece of songwriting, had enriched it, polished it, perfected it.

John Stewart is almost 70, but earlier this year, he brought out a new CD, The Day the River Sang. It belongs in the top 4 or 5 of his many, many recordings, as do his first three, Signals Through the Glass, California Bloodlines, and Willard--the latter three being well represented on this recording, The Complete Phoenix Concerts.

Years ago, I sang my children to sleep with a spare and sweet love song by Stewart simply called "Joe." I miss Steve Goodman. I will always love Guy Clark, John Prine, and James Talley.

But John Stewart and this particular recording--they are my heart.