DAVE STEWART

The Blackbird Diaries

[Surfdog/Weapons of Mass Entertainment]

You have to wonder how Dave Stewart found time to make a new solo album. Between what might be the world’s busiest production schedule (recent clients include Stevie Nicks and Joss Stone), starting the band SuperHeavy with Stone, Mick Jagger, Damian Marley and A.R. Rahman, and writing music for the forthcoming theatrical adaptation of Ghost, it would seem his calendar is already overbooked. But when Stewart had an impulse to go to Nashville and make a record, he quickly rounded up some local aces and cut these rootsy tracks in five days, writing most of them along the way. Bob Dylan gets co-writing credit on the neo-soul “Worth the Waiting For,” but not on “The Gypsy Girl and Me,” whose words are arguably more Dylan-esque. Special guest Nicks and Stewart sound positively cozy on the country ballad “Cheaper Than Free,” but she’s nowhere to be found on the worshipful “Stevie Baby.” That would just be weird. –Jeff Tamarkin