This is the first new CD of studio recordings in five years by John Stewart, one of the overlooked founders of the "Americana" genre, whose musical career encompasses more than 40 years and 40 albums. "Havana" features 14 memorable Stewart originals that ponder modern life and materialism ("Davey on the Internet," "Who Stole the Soul of Johnny Dreams"), mortality and existentialism ("Dogs in the Bed," "Starman"), personal and public heroes ("I Want to Be Elvis," "Turn of the Century [Diana]"), love ("Miracle Girl," "Cowboy in the Distance"), and life’s cosmic mysteries ("Star in the Black Sky Shining," "Rally Down the Night"). John tackles these issues with unquenched wonder and hard-won experience, a wry cynicism forged by reality but tempered with an optimism based on faith in the individual. The title song expresses John’s frustration at his inability to visit the forbidden Cuba. The CD’s one borrowed composition is John’s version of the standard "Lucky Old Sun," a 1949 hit for Frankie Laine also recorded by Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others. The CD was produced and mixed by John, who also plays most of the instruments (guitars, banjo, bass, harmonica, keyboards, percussion). His accompanists include wife Buffy Ford Stewart on harmonies and percussion (her backing vocals on "Turn of the Century" make one hunger for the song’s chorus) and longtime sideman John Hoke on drums and percussion. Rich, bright layers of ringing guitars, propulsive rhythms, dollops of banjo, lyrics ranging from thoughtful to playful, and John’s weathered voice of experience add up to a mature, haunting (but still rocking) high water mark in his lengthy career.