The folk singer-songwriter and musician Al Stewart was born in Glasgow in 1945. He is best known for the tracks "Year of the Cat" and "On the Border".

He released his debut album of folk songs, the Bedsitter Images, in 1967. But he came to attention in the UK with his follow-up album, which gained him the Folk Album of the Year Award from Melody Maker magazine. The album included contributions from Led Zepplin's Jimmy Paige, and Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol from the folk group Fairport Convention.

He was joined by Yes keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman for the Orange album, which has prog rock themes, but was not a huge seller. He finally came to greater attention in the States with Modern Times which made No.30 in 1975 and would herald a run of commercially and critically successful albums. The best known of which was Year of the Cat, the album got to No.5 and produced the hits "Year of the Cat" and "On the Border". After Time Passages, which also did well, came 24 Carrots, which would be the last of the run of commercial albums.

Stewart still releases albums and tours the US and Europe extensively today where he has a loyal following.