First Light is thrilled to welcome Jimmy McDonough for a stop at the shop on his national AIN'T NO GRAVE TOUR, to celebrate his newest biography, Gary Stewart: I Am From the Honky Tonks, the definitive telling of the life of the late, great legend Gary Stewart.

He will be joined in conversation by Austin's own prolific songwriter Kevin Dehan, who helms the Texas music project, Cactus Lee.

The event will begin with an author reception from 6:00-6:30 p.m., followed by a seated conversation (6:30 p.m.) and a book signing. Tickets include a copy of the book and a reserved seat. Unreserved seats are available on a first come, first served basis. "Free" RSVPs are encouraged.

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ABOUT THE BOOK​

“Gary Stewart stood at a weird intersection of country, rock, rockabilly, bluegrass, and blues, and melded them together like no one had ever done before—or since. You want to talk about country rock? No one did it better or took it further than Gary Stewart. Gary had fallen off the face of the earth and I became obsessed with finding him. Thirty-seven years in the making, this book is the result.”

-Jimmy McDonough

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Utilizing the unique combination of oral history, vivid prose, and personal experience that made McDonough’s Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography a bestseller, Gary Stewart: I Am From The Honky-Tonks follows a feral Kentucky family who surfed success and rear-ended disaster in drug-soaked, 1970s Florida. At its core is the tempestuous, tragic love story of Gary Stewart and his wife, Mary Lou, that will leave readers haunted long after they turn the last page. Featuring hundreds of hours of interviews with Gary, his wife Mary Lou, family members, band members, producers, cohorts, dealers, and fellow stars such as Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, Dickey Betts, Dean Dillon, and Charley Pride, this intense and exhaustive 544-page book – filled throughout with rare and unseen images collected by McDonough, and an exclusive cover image by Grandal Stewart (Gary’s brother) – reveals the complete, untold, and torrid history of a man who lived life as if  “the plane could crash tomorrow.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR​

Jimmy McDonough is one of America’s greatest living biographers. A pop culture maven with a two-fisted style that reads more like pulp fiction, the larger-than-life subjects of McDonough’s books leap off the page and lodge themselves in the subconscious.

McDonough has written eight biographies (including Neil Young, Tammy Wynette, and The Ormonds). They skew between cultural icons with massive worldwide appeal, and fascinating obscurities from the American underground; every one of them messy, complicated figures whose messy, complicated lives McDonough often embeds himself with, researches to death, and explores in all their unexpurgated, unvarnished glory.

His eighth, and latest, Gary Stewart: I Am From the Honky-Tonks, the jaw-dropping tale of the titular ’70s honky-tonk singer-songwriter, a true country music outlaw, gestated over almost 40 years. The book was born, like several others in his oeuvre, of a personal relationship with the subject that informs both its tone and the author’s trademark intrusion into the narrative. McDonough swears this will be the last biography he writes, concluding an expertly curated catalogue of work that doubles as a lifelong, obsessive, and very personal investigation into outsized outsider artists who all reflected and shaped American post-war culture.

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Jimmy will be joined in conversation by Cactus Lee, the project of Austin, Texas songwriter Kevin Dehan, who has quietly built a devoted following through a steady stream of records and constant touring of honky tonks across the country. What began as a home recording project in 2019 soon grew into a rotating band, bringing Lee’s timeless country songs stages all over the U.S., including a Chicago residency with the Cosmic Country showcase.

His newest album, Lee’s Dream, is his second release on Western Vinyl, recently arrived on vinyl with a release show at The Lexington in London, to be followed by a digital & retail release on April 10. Written during a monthlong solo tour through the Midwest and South and recorded at Fort Horton Studios with producer Billy Horton (known for work with Charley Crockett), Lee's Dream blends classic country influences with Dehan’s reflective songwriting.

A lifelong Texan, Dehan writes songs steeped in Texas lore, country history, and roadside mythology, creating music that feels both timeless and distinctly his own.