Moon Winx

Description

As one of the brightest and most prolific new singer-songwriters to emerge from the Birmingham music scene in recent years, Will Stewart has made a name for himself as both an imaginative storyteller and a six-string gunslinger whose detailed accounts of life in the Deep South seem to capture the essence not only of the humid, kudzu-covered surroundings from which they spring, but also of the creative cultural milieu that makes such storytelling possible in the first place. Drawing inspiration from everyone from Big Star to R.E.M., to Phosphorescent and the Drive-By Truckers, and even classic Southern literary figures like Eudora Welty and Barry Hannah, Stewart has managed to carve out a niche for himself as an evoker of time, place, and characters—and the stories that swirl around them—in a way that is thoughtful, empathetic, and unapologetic in its presentation. Now on his fourth solo LP, across his last three studio efforts, Stewart has demonstrated a deft touch not only for engaging character arcs and succinct studies of the human condition, but also for a range of musical modes that span everything from quiet meditations on love and loss, to impetuous rockers and moody explorations of the complicated nature of modern life in the South. As someone who also wears the hat of a highly sought-after sideman lending his talents to friends and fellow travelers like Birmingham natives The Blips, Terry Ohms, and Sarah Lee Langford, there are few sonic spaces that Stewart's hands have not touched in one way or another. Stewart's latest offering sees him poised to realize his most ambitious project to date, with a 10-song cycle centered on the iconic and now-defunct Moon Winx Lodge in Tuscaloosa, AL, and some of the characters and scenarios that played out there over the years.