Lefko Remembers John Stewart

John Stewart died on January 18th. He was to American singer-songwriters what Flannery O’Connor or William Faulkner was to American lit or Walker Evans to rural American photography.

Stewart wrote and sang of the American West. His heroes were farmers struggling against dust bowls, tornadoes and poverty. He illuminated every line of their hard-edged faces and difficult but proud lives.

But this isn’t just an appreciation of an American giant. It’s about the night he came to Toronto and met a Canadian premier.

When I lived in Toronto in the ’90s I booked a rare Canadian date for Stewart at a long forgotten, very shabby College Street nightclub. They say that concert promoters should book shows with their head and not their hearts but this time I led with an open heart and I got crushed.

When the doors opened on a cold winter night there had been but a handful of tickets sold. Suddenly bounding down the staircase with wife and a couple of friends was Larry Grossman, former premier of Ontario!

Looking at Grossman’s face I could see that he was as much of a John Stewart nut as I was and suddenly I didn’t feel as bad.

We sat spellbound by the performance and afterward Grossman met his idol and bought every piece of merchandise that Stewart was selling.

I saw Stewart in California last year and he couldn’t ever remember performing in Toronto. But I could. Larry Grossman, John Stewart and me. I’ll never forget.