Music
Press
This isn’t exactly a jazz album, but plenty of jazz fans are blues fans as well, and keyboardist Stewart is one of Portland’s favorite blues sons. This disc is a fine mix of barrelhouse blues, New Orleans swamp boogie, and Delta blues. D.K. Stewart is a thumper on the keys. He is best when he can pound the piano with reckless abandon, as on “Hidden Charms,” a relentless boogie woogie that finds him thundering away with a Crescent City flair. His vocals are solid as well, with a clear lyric sense delivered with a deep, guttural drawl. He is backed by some of Portland’s finest blues and jazzers, including bassist Don Campbell, drummer Carlton Jackson and guitar whiz Peter Dammann. The album can get funky, as on “Bayou Girl,” which doesn’t quite have the impact as the bluesier tracks, as Stewart plays the electric keyboard instead of the acoustic piano. But with tunes like “Shameless Boogie,” listeners will be treated to a rollicking good time by Stewart and crew. For what it is, it’s certainly right up there with the best in the country. (four stars).
- JazzScene, Dec. 2004
"It's not often the phones at KINK ring so much for a new CD, but the DK4 have managed to do just that. - Bob Ancheta
"IN THE HOUSE shows off their love of obscure blues and boogie, especially the funk-inflected sound of mid-20th-century New Orleans
and the nearby bayou.”
- Marty Hughley, The Oregonian
Tune in to D.K.Stewart & the DK4. This Pacific Northwest quartet lays down fresh and flavorful grooves on In The House (self-release),with a fine rockabilly rhythm section fronted by Stewart's meaty,New Orleans-style piano. I love what they do to Howlin' Wolf's "Hidden Charms." Great recording,too." - Blues Revue
DK and his merry band, The DK 4, are spot-on top musicians from the Portland area whose new album, In the House, spotlights the sounds and textures that have influenced each one of these fine artists that....awww screw it! This new album is fun and loaded with butt-shakin' boogie music that doesn't stop until the party does. Somebody grab my ass and let's
make a conga line, DK and the DK4 are In The House! - KMHD “Friday Freeway Blues”
Discography
DK STEWART DISCOGRAPHY
IN THE HOUSE D.K. Stewart 2004
NR 001 Natty Rain Productions, Portland, OR
SOUL ACTIVATED Curtis Salgado 2000-01
SH 9028 Shanachie Records, 212-334-0284
"DON'T CALL HOME" D.K. Stewart - 1994-95
CRCD-010 Candlelight Records, Portland, OR
"SUN VALLEY SESSIONS" D. K. Stewart 1985/2000
CRCD-33-17 Criminal Records, Portland, OR
"NO EXCUSE FOR THE BLUES" D. K. Stewart -1993
CRCD-33-16 Criminal Records, Portland, OR
"YOU'RE FIRED" The Paul deLay Band 1985
RL-44-16 Red Lightning Records, London, UK
"SMALL POTATOES" LLoyd Jones 1989
CR-33-08 Criminal Records, Portland, OR
"ROSE CITY BLUES" Live at the Festival 1987
PT-001 PO-TOWN Records, Portland, OR
"LIVE AT THE ROADHOUSE" The Paul deLay Band 1984
CR-33-02 Criminal Records, Seattle WA
"AMERICAN VOODOO" The Paul deLay Band 1983
CR-33-01 Criminal Records, Portland, OR
"TEASIN' " The Paul deLay Band 1982
CR-33-03 CIS Records, Bend OR
"L.A. BLUES ALL NIGHT" The Robert Cray Band - 1982
PLP-9050 P-Vine Special Records, Tokyo, Japan
"PAUL DELAY" The Paul deLay Band 1981
CR-45-01 Criminal Records, Portland , OR
"WHO'S BEEN TALKIN'" The Robert Cray Band 1979
TOM-7041-B Tomato Records, Los Angeles, CA
"THE NIGHTHAWKS" The Nighthawk Band 1976
NTHK-35-01 Nighthawk Records, Eugene, OR
Photos
Bio
D.K. Stewart, whose New Orleans, boogie-woogie piano style has been a driving force behind such Northwest blues giants as Robert Cray, Paul deLay and Curtis Salgado, has for the past several years been tearing up major festival stages with his own group, the DK Stewart Band. Backed by longtime Portland sideman and former Paul deLay Band bassist Don Campbell and deLay guitarist Peter Dammann, and drummer Cory Burden, Stewart serves up swinging, uptempo jump blues by Nat Cole, Charles Brown and T-Bone Walker; hard-grooving New Orleans funk by Professor Longhair, Clifton Chenier and the Meters; slashing Chicago blues by Howlin Wolf and Magic Sam; and his own soulful, compelling originals.
For special engagements the D.K. Stewart Band adds the Soul Survivor Horns, with British music scene veteran Chris Mercer on saxophone and trumpeter Joe McCarthy.
In the 1970s, Stewart and Curtis Salgado fronted the Eugene Nighthawks, a band the young John Bellushi, then filming Animal House, often sat in with as a guest vocalist; these jam sessions provided Bellushi the inspiration, and much of the repertoire, for The Blues Brothers project.
Stewart has performed with such blues legends as Big Walter Horton, S.P. Leary, Hubert Sumlin, Sunnyland Slim, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, James Cotton, Albert Collins, George "Harmonica" Smith, and Roomful of Blues, and has appeared on bills with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Junior Walker, Clifton Chenier, Ray Charles, Paul Butterfield, and BB King. Stewarts keyboard virtuosity can be heard on recordings by Robert Cray, Paul deLay, Curtis Salgado, Lloyd Jones, and on his own three solo projects.
As a band leader, and as a featured sideman, Stewart has appeared at major blues venues throughout the US, including Portlands Waterfront Blues Festival, the San Francisco Blues Festival, Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival, Winthrop Blues Festival, Mt. Baker Blues Festival, and the Legendary R&B Cruise. For more, visit Stewarts website at www.myspace.com/dkstewartanddk4.
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