Gary Stewart

                      Battleground
                      Produced by Roy Dea
                      Gary Stewart - Artist
                      Label: Hightone
                      Year: Aug 14, 1990
                      Length: 31:31
                       
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                The thing that first strikes you is the voice. Gary Stewart has been a major force in country music since the `70s and when he sings, you realize he means every word. To these ears, there's no wilder honky-tonk country blues raver alive today. Battleground is his second release for Hightone, a follow-up to his highly lauded 1988 comeback, Brand New, and  once again he's working with producer Roy Dea.  Dea seems to know how to get the best from Stewart, having produced a slew of hits for him in the 70's and here they surround themselves with a stellar cast, including slide guitar slinger Warren Haynes of Allman Brothers Band, David Briggs on keyboards  and country legend Reggie Young on lead guitar. Stewart wrote four new songs for Battleground; of these, the hot boogie-woogie "Let's Go Jukin"' and the tender love song "Delia" stand out. The jumpin' blues of "Nothin' But A Woman," originally done by Robert Cray, and a stunning take on Bobby Darin's "You're The Reason I'm Living" show that Gary Stewart can still take someone else's tune and make it his own.
                  Jim Caligiuri

                  Reviews:  CMJ-NMR

                  1990's best country record was Gary Stewart's Battleground, a minor masterpiece of gritty honky-tonk and heartache, and the act that it was released on Hightone, and not RCA or MCA, was no accident. As popular music country continues to suffer from a fear of it's past, it's left  to  labels like Hightone to keep the hard stuff flowing and leave the country "lite" to the suits in the high rises.

                   So many really awful country music records come out every day that you begin to wonder if the entire genre i.e., the Nashville music biz mafia, the urbanization ofAmerica, and the much

                  yadda-yadda-yadda'ed "new country" artists like Rodney Crowell, Dwight Yoakum, O'Kanes. They have all done good work but would you ever mention them in the same breath as George Jones or Merle Haggard or even Ernest  Tubb?
                  Uh-uh. Gary Stewart, on the other hand, is, as they say, the real thing.  Eerily reminiscent of George Jones in vocal warble, Stewart knows how to sell the bejeesus out of his songs, the first (and maybe last) trait of a true C & W  hero.The band assembled  by  producer Roy Dea for Battleground plays their cards just right, sounding remarkably human for an early 90's country recording without ever getting in Stewart's way.  Records like this are proudly reminding us why honky-tonk C&W was and is so needed.

                    songlist
                  1. Nothin' But A Woman
                  2. Bedroom Battleground
                  3. Let's Go Jukin'
                  4. Nothing Cheap About A Cheap Affair
                  5. Ol' Hank's Lovesick Blues
                  6. Woman In Demand
                  7. Hey Leona
                  8.You're The Reason I'm Living
                  9.Delia
                  10.  Seeing Is Believing
                   
                   

               
                    Source: MusicCentral;Tunes Network:Roy Dea Discography
                    Rolling Stone Network;All Media Guide