[15] Stevens was born and raised in Elkhart, Indiana[7] and started playing music at age nine in various garage and hard rock bands in the 1960s and 1970s.
[16] Classically trained, he received scholarship offers from several universities to study double bass, but turned them all down, as he wanted to play rock music.
[17] In 1975, after graduating from high school, Stevens joined Indiana hard rock band Magi, who released their sole album Win or Lose in 1976.
The self-financed album was released with no major distribution in a limited edition of 1,000 copies, and the band toured Indiana, Michigan and Illinois in the late 1970s.
However, with their style of hard rock being out of fashion in Los Angeles at the time, the band unsuccessfully tried to adapt to a scene dominated by punk and new wave.
"[17] During this period, in between working shifts at the Tower Records music store on the Sunset Strip, Stevens seriously began writing songs[10] and played his first solo acoustic gig in December 1980 at the Troubadour in Hollywood.
[17] In a retrospective review in 1998, Q magazine called the EP "serviceable melodic power pop" with "insipid production" that makes the songs "jangle along too politely.
"[4] While Stevens later said that the EP was a good start of trying to make a different style for himself, he felt that the production was weak: "I’m credited, but I really had no control ... and the mastering was terrible.
[17] Stevens officially joined the Los Angeles-based Long Ryders in January 1984,[19] recording three studio albums with the band between 1984 and 1987, all featuring Stevens-penned songs.
The Long Ryders were originally associated with the Los Angeles Paisley Underground movement of the 1980s,[8] but unlike other bands of the genre, psychedelic rock played only a small role in their music.
"[7] They toured North America and Europe several times as well as reaching the charts in the UK and earning a large cult following in the US while doing well on college radio.
[20] Their 1984 debut album Native Sons received strong reviews, and did especially well in the UK, where the band's take on American musical traditions went down well with critics.
[21] Disillusioned by the band's relentless touring schedule[20] and lack of money, Stevens left the Long Ryders in June 1987 to devote time to his young family and to find another source of income.
[24] The Long Ryders, including Stevens, have since 2004 occasionally reunited and released their first studio album in 32 years, Psychedelic Country Soul, in 2019.
"[25] Along with other members of the Long Ryders, the Dream Syndicate and Green on Red, Stevens recorded the Danny & Dusty album, The Lost Weekend in 1985.
[26][27] Backing up Stuart and Wynn, besides Stevens on bass, were guitarists Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy from the Long Ryders, keyboardist Chris Cacavas from Green on Red, and drummer Dennis Duck from the Dream Syndicate.
[10] In March 1987, between Long Ryders tours, Stevens was asked to play standup bass for a Clark and Olson gig at my Place in Santa Monica.
Together with Dwight Yoakam, pianist Skip Edwards and drummer Michael Huey they performed material from Clark and Olson's then-current album So Rebellious a Lover.
[31][32] He also produced Green on Red bassist Jack Waterson's 1989 solo album Whose Dog?, as well as playing bass, lead guitar and singing backing vocals.
Two tracks were produced by Jack Waterson and recorded at Larry's Pro Sound in California in 1988 with Chris Cacavas on bass and organ and Jim McGrath on drums.
"[2] Relix magazine described it as an "unpretentious rootsy pop-rock adventure" with an "abundance of hook-filled songs that [Stevens] laces liberally with folk, country and rock influences".
[32] It received four-star reviews from AllMusic and Q magazine,[40][4] and Goldmine called it "unfailingly melodic and memorable" and rivaling "anything that the Long Ryders ever laid down".
All proceeds from sales went directly to benefit Neil and Pegi Young's Bridge School foundation, and the album included artists such as the Bevis Frond, Lee Ranaldo, the Coal Porters, Richard Lloyd, Steve Wynn, and the Walkabouts.
[43] The self-produced and mostly self-recorded album features guest appearances by Sarah Stevens on violin and vocals, and "Uncle John" Potthast on banjo and guitar on a few tracks.
[16] Bucketfull of Brains described the music as a "paisley potpourri" of "LA folk-pop, psychedelia, and a little bit of country" and called the album "a stone classic.