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Stewart Harris
Stewart Harris had an epiphany one day in his sociology class at the University of South Carolina. “There was a substitute teacher but it was like I couldn’t hear him. I was just jotting down song titles – about 25 titles during the 50-minute class. I shut my book and told one of my fraternity brothers I was leaving school that day!”
Born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in South Carolina, Harris was deeply influenced by Elvis Presley, R&B music, folk music, and his own mother, a classically trained cellist. After leaving university, Harris spent time performing his own folk-rock music around the country, stopping in New York, Rhode Island, Washington D.C., as well as several Canadian resorts.
In 1973, Harris met Harry Warner, Jerry Reed’s then-Manager and they began a long-distance working relationship with Stewart sending Warner his song demos. “I came to Nashville to record the song demos. That’s when I discovered I loved working with Nashville musicians!” Shortly thereafter, Harris moved to Tennessee, signed as an artist to Mercury Records and became a staff writer at Reed’s publishing company.
The writer/artist experience has given Harris a tangible understanding and easy communication with current artists as evidenced by his #1hits written with Travis Tritt (“Can I Trust You With My Heart”, “I’m Gonna Be Somebody”, “Drift off to Dream”), John Berry (“Standing on the Edge of Goodbye”) and Little Texas (“You And Me And Forever”). Harris’ chart-toppers also include Mickey Gilley’s “Lonely Nights”, Waylon Jennings’ “Rose In Paradise”, Leon Everette’s “Hurricane”, and Wynonna’s now-signature song, “No One Else On Earth”.
As Stewart so enjoys, he is writing with several new artists for their upcoming projects, including Warner Brothers’ Jamie Lee Thurston, Sony Records’ Colt Prather and Sony recording artist Tammy Cochran, who co-penned, along with Harris and Jim McBride, “Angels in Waiting”, which was nominated at the 2002 ACM Awards for Song Of The Year and Video Of The Year.
Stewart Harris has enjoyed a successful songwriting career, including 9 number one hits, 3 film awards and 10 prestigious “Million Air” awards from BMI for songs receiving over one million airplays. Both Alabama and South Carolina claim Harris as a son. The Alabama Music Hall Of Fame bestowed the Creator’s Award on him in early 1999 and later that year he was inducted into the South Carolina Entertainment Hall Of Fame. He’s had songs recorded by Patty Loveless, Montgomery Gentry, George Jones, Wynonna, Travis Tritt, B.J. Thomas, Tammy Wynette, Neil Diamond, Waylon Jennings, Reba McEntire, Marshall Tucker Band, John Michael Montgomery and many others.
In 1999, Stewart signed an exclusive songwriting deal with peermusic Nashville to which he also sold his extensive catalog of songs.
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