Tribute to folk-rocker held at McCabe’s

Fans and friends of folk-rocker John Stewart gathered at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica on Saturday night for a moving tribute to a musician whose career spanned nearly five decades and left an enduring imprint on the American music scene.

Stewart, 68, was to have performed Saturday at McCabe’s -- at least his 47th appearance there, store managers said. When he died Jan. 19, McCabe’s, with the help of two of Stewart’s longtime band members, turned over its famous backroom stage for a no-charge memorial show.

It was the second such tribute since Stewart’s death: On Jan. 27, six members of his band kept his date at the Upper Deck Sports Grill in Scottsdale, Ariz., and owner Tom Anderson donated the proceeds to Stewart’s widow, Buffy Ford Stewart.

On Saturday, bass player Dave Batti and John Hoke, on guitar and lead vocals, opened the show with Stewart’s “Runaway Train,” which became a hit for Rosanne Cash. Then Hoke sang a haunting version of “Jasmine” from “The Day the River Sang,” an album Stewart released two years ago.

Batti and Hoke told some of their favorite stories from their more than two decades as Stewart sidemen.

Video archivist Paul Surratt compiled and showed a video tracing Stewart’s career, starting with his early folk band, the Cumberland Three, which he left in 1961 to replace Dave Guard in the Kingston Trio. The video continued with TV appearances and concerts from Stewart’s solo career, including his 1979 hit “Gold.”

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