Gary / Cactus & A Rose

Digitally remastered two-fer containing a pair of great albums from the honky tonk legend. With his distinctive vibrato voice, no-one sang drinking and cheating songs better than Gary Stewart. The first album Gary from 1979 kicks off with a pounding rocker 'Mazelle', the first charted single from the album (the other being the leisurely, bluesy 'Shady Streets'). This faultless 10 song set includes a distinctive rendition of Leon Payne's 'Lost Highway' evoking memories of Hank Williams, and concludes with the truly memorable 'One More' where steel guitar and piano provide a perfect backdrop to the singer's unique vocals. Cactus And A Rose (1980) moved away from familiar Nashville studio surroundings and into the Southern country-rock arena that first inspired him. Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts were among the musicians and, with Chips Moman as producer, these 10 tracks added up to a program unique to Stewart. It also provided another two chart singles - the title track and the double-sided 'Are We Dreamin' The Same Dream' and 'Roarin', the latter living up to it's title as Bonnie Bramlett joins in the raucous barrelhouse fun.