Stewart Family on Vaden

Stewart Family - Thirty Pieces of Silver (Vaden EP-200), unknown year

The Stewart Family was actually a local Arkansas group and located not too far away from Trumann, the home of Arlen Vaden, owner of Vaden Records. The Stewarts lived near Blytheville and also appeared on KLCN during the first half of the 1950s, so it is more than probable that Vaden knew them.

Bandleader was Virgil Freemont «Pappy» Stewart, who was born on August 5, 1907. He married Gladys Bell Long (1910-2004) in 1926 and they settled as farmers near Blytheville. In the 1940s, he decided to set up a singing group that included his daughters Bethel on vocals as well as fiddle and Jeanette on vocals and bass, his sister Baba Howard on accordion, and a neighbor’s daughter Wilma, among Pappy Stewart himself on vocals and guitar. Their repertoire included gospel songs but also secular country music. They started broadcasting on KLCN and by 1948, Bethel’s husband Buddy Brown joined them on guitar, while Baba dropped out eventually. She would go on to write a couple of songs for country hit maker Ernest Tubb.

The Courier News February 27, 1956

The Stewart family was friends with Slim Rhodes’ family and Rhodes had just secured a recording contract with Gilt-Edge Records, a subsidiary of 4 Star, and he might have had a hand in bringing the Stewarts to the label. Moreover, KLCN announcer Don Whitney, who sang bass with the Stewart Family occasionally, also recorded for 4 Star and was likely the power behind it. The group recorded a demo at KLCN, which they mailed to Bill McCall at 4 Star and not long after, they had a recording deal on their own. They held their first session for the label around April 1950 and recorded for 4 Star until 1953. Many, if not all sessions, likely took place at KLCN. Their biggest «claim to fame» came in 1951, when they recorded Pappy Stewart’s composition «Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)» in February, which was released on Gilt-Edge #5053 in December that year. The group’s records didn’t sell in noteworthy numbers and this one was no exception, but it caused a couple of cover versions during the 1950s, including one by Faron Young (who had a #10 hit with it a year later), Bonnie Lou, and 4 Star’s discovery Patsy Cline. It was not until 1961, when Solomon Burke’s version of the song became a top hit and the song became a classic. Artists like George Jones, Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, Johnny Burnette, Brenda Lee, and many others recorded versions over the years.

Back in 1952, Pappy Stewart and his family did not foresee these events or experienced any impact of their records on their daily lives. They performed on radio and played mostly schoolhouses in a one-day drive radius around Blytheville. Their two songs issued on Vaden were recorded during different sessions. «Thirty Pieces of Silver» was cut at  their first session and saw release on 4 Star #1469. Vaden thought it would probably be a good idea to reissue them as they enjoyed some local popularity a couple of years before. When Arlen Vaden re-released their recordings on Vaden, the Stewarts had already dropped out of music. By the mid to late 1950s, the family had quit. King and Starday also occasionally reused Stewart Family masters for gospel LPs and EPs.

Though, the windfall from Burke’s record in 1961 caused Pappy Stewart to buy more farmland. He passed away July 10, 1988, and is buried at Dogwood Cemetery in Blytheville, Arkansas. In 2009, Bear Family included the Stewart Family’s original version of «Just Out of Reach» on their 1951 edition of their critically much acclaimed country & western history series «Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Hillbilly Music.»

Sources
• The above text is an excerpt from my feature story in American Music Magazine #184 from January 2024, "Hymns and Rock'n'Roll Along Highway 67 - The Story of Vaden Records"