The decision to name his band "The Negro Problem" guaranteed Stew that it would remain an esoteric treasure and/or a confusing google return for Gunnar Myrdal fans. Often referred to as the modern Love, Stew's other negro problem may be the short sighted critics who have to reach all the way back to Arthur Lee for a comparison. For diversity of the catalog alone, I'd refer to Pat Fish and the various incarnations of The Jazz Butcher as the white The Negro Problem even if it makes no sense chronologically.
Whatever.
"Bleed", from the band's 2002 album "Joys and Concerns", is a show stopper looking for a show and details the albatross around the neck of dreamers and its toxic effect on a creative mind and the world around it in a frank conversational tone and with a chorus so simple and beautiful that one could almost forget that its designed to deflate; as is usually the case with such manipulations you don't even recognize it until it's gone. And even if you can see it for what it is, you probably still won't be aware of just how far the poison has spread until it is too late.
Meanwhile, my own private albatross has flown away to a new scavenging place where, hopefully, it will be quickly recognized for what really lies beneath the pretty plumage and, like Herodias, will spend the rest of its days in exile, wondering why it never soared as high as its hopes.
Free at last, free at last.
