Amazing how times passes. Fifty years have gone since The Year of the Cat, the Bicentennial Year of these United States, a once in a lifetime event in the middle of a time of national trauma and doubt. The man behind that album, Al Stewart, is on his Farewell Tour, as perhaps he should since he’s going on 81 years old this coming September. So it was a happy surprise to receive his latest CD in the mail.
(Well, not so much; I ordered it online on purpose, but anyhow…)
Al Stewart & The Empty Pockets Live was released through Stewart’s own label, Wallaby Trails Recordings in August 2024, a double-CD covering his 1970’s glory days. The Empty Pockets hail from Chicago and play a listener-friendly variety of rock reminiscent of the early 70’s. In 2008 your kids may have heard their music on Nickelodeon shows like iCarly, Zoey 101 and Drake & Josh. They’ve toured with many legendary artists, including Richie Furay of Buffalo Springfield, Gary Wright and Stewart, as well as recording with Simon Kirke of Bad Company.
The Empty Pockets began touring with Stewart in 2022. This CD was recorded at concerts “across America”; it’d have been nice to know where and when, but I’m nitpicking. This is obviously not going to be a loud knockout concert experience like a KISS show, because that’s not how Al Stewart rolls. His music is the kind they don’t play on the radio anymore, a more thoughtful, intimate variety roiling with poetical lyrics and historical references.
It opens with “Sirens of Titan”, a song inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s 1959 novel. The band seems to replicate the sound of the studio songs well enough. Stewart carries every tune with that familiar Scots voice, though it’s not as expressive as it used to be. That’s to be expected, since he’s not as young as he used to be. Between songs he engages in some light chatter, the first time to segue into “Antarctica”, from 1988’s Last Days of the Century LP.
Of the five studio CDs he recorded between 1993 to 2008, actually, here he performs only two selections, the aforementioned “Antarctica” on CD-1 and “Joe the Georgian” from 1995’s Between the Wars. The setlist leans heavily on his better known works Like 1975’s Modern Times (“Sirens of Titan”, “Carol” & “Modern Times”), 1978’s Time Passages (“The Palace of Versailles” and the title song), and especially The Year of the Cat; six of that album’s nine tunes are performed, strangely enough in the same running order as on the album.
After “Palace of Versailles”, Stewart invites Peter White, his co-writer on ‘Time Passages”, to join them on stage to play his nylon string guitar while Chase Huna blows saxophone; that part on “Time Passages” and “Year of the Cat” was originally performed by Phil Kenzie, one of rock’s great sax players. This is followed by a triple serving from Year of the Cat, first “On the Border”, “Midas Shadow” and then “Flying Sorcery”
The second CD opens with the oldest song in their set, “Soho (Needless to Say” from his 1974 release, Past, Present and Future, where keyboardist Erika Brett offers a haunting backing vocal. Then comes “Carol” and the longest song of the night, “Modern Times”, an 8-&-a-half minute opus that actually seems to breeze by. “Broadway Hotel” is next (again from the Cat LP), then “Joe the Georgian”, an acoustic song which has the kind of Spanish guitar playing my mother used to play when we were kids. The final two songs are ironically or not, also the last two on Cat, “One Stage Before” and appropriately enough, “Year of the Cat”, a romantic interlude with hints of Casablanca in the opening couplet.
This was an enjoyable listen for people like me who grew up with songwriters like Stewart and Dylan and others who could create movies with their words. I’d liked to have heard some other tunes of his as well; how would they have done “Song on the Radio”, “Midnight Rocks” or “Russians & Americans”? Well done, Al. I wish you a happy life. To the Empty Pockets, great job and may the future bring good prospects.
Al Stewart- guitar, vocals
The Empty Pockets: Josh Solomon—electric guitar, backing vocals
Erika Brett—piano, organ, strings & backing vocals
Nate Bellon—bass
Adam Balasco—drums
+
Peter White—nylon string guitar, “Time Passages”
Elliot Scozzaro—flute (“Antarctica”, “Palace of Versailles”, “Broadway Hotel”, sax on “Year of the Cat”
Marc Macisso—harmonica, “Flying Sorcery”
Chase Huna—sax, “Time Passages”, “Midas Shadow”
Papablues Scrapbook 