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'Daydream Believer' Writer Dies

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By JOHN ROGERS, The Associated Press

Published: January 21, 2008

LOS ANGELES - John Stewart recorded some of pop music's most acclaimed solo albums, helping create a style that came to be called Americana, but he was always best known for writing the Monkees' enduring hit "Daydream Believer."

Stewart, who came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of folk music's Kingston Trio, died Saturday at a San Diego hospital after suffering a brain aneurism. He was 68.

"He was a lovely man and a very gentle soul and I guess the only thing you can say today is that the world is less one great songwriter," the Monkees' Mickey Dolenz said Sunday.

Stewart left the Kingston Trio shortly before the Monkees released "Daydream Believer" in 1967, then went on to record nearly four dozen solo albums, including the critically acclaimed "California Bloodlines" and "Bombs Away Dream Babies." The latter included the hit single "Gold," in which he dueted with Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks.

Still, as with "Daydream Believer," he was likely best known for writing songs for others, including Joan Baez, Nanci Griffith, Roseanne Cash and Anne Murray.

A husky-voiced singer and accomplished guitarist who delivered lyrics in a poignant, often longing voice, his music was hard to classify. It fell somewhere between rock, country and folk and eventually came to be called Americana.

Stewart joined the Kingston Trio in 1961, replacing Dave Guard in the group that had helped usher in an American folk music revival in the late 1950s. He recorded more than a dozen albums with the trio before going on to a solo career in 1967.

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