American guitarist best known for his
live apperarances with the band
Genesis, as well as his work with its onetime
lead singer,
Phil Collins. Stuermer grew up in
Milwaukee, WI, where he started playing guitar at age 11. His influences varied widely over the years, from
Elvis Presley and the
Beatles, to
jazz guitarists such as
Wes Montgomery and
Joe Pass, to
virtuoso guitarists like
Jimi Hendrix.
Stuermer's first would tour was with jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, whom he joined up with in 1975; they would record four studio albums together. In 1978, he met with Mike Rutherford of Genesis in New York City, to audition as a guitar and bass player for the band's upcoming "And Then There Were Three" tour (replacing Steve Hackett, who had bowed out during the mixing sessions for Seconds Out). He had first heard the band's work the year before, when Ponty loaned him a cassette containing A Trick Of The Tail and Wind and Wuthering. After four songs, Rutherford told him, "I think you're the one."
Stuermer would continue to play with Genesis for the next two decades, as a "permanent part-time" member for live shows. When Genesis drummer and lead vocalist Phil Collins launched his solo career with the album Face Value (released 1981), he selected Stuermer as the lead guitarist for his backup band. (As Collins put it, Stuermer's playing "degenerated to sounding like an electric razor" on the first single from that album, "In The Air Tonight.") Stuermer has since played on all of Collins' solo albums, and shares writing credits with Collins on several tracks from those albums, including "Something Happened On the Way to Heaven," "I Don't Wanna Know," "Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore," and "Only You Know and I Know."
Stuermer soon began working on and writing his own music as well. In 1987, following the Invisible Touch tour with Genesis, he took the time to record his first solo album, Steppin' Out, released in 1988 on GRP Records. All the songs on this album were instrumentals, including a cover of Collins' "I Don't Wanna Know." In May 1998, Stuermer formed his own independent music label, Urban Island Music, with his second solo album, Live & Learn, as its first release. In July 2000, Stuermer released his third solo album, Another Side of Genesis, composed entirely of instrumental arrangements of Genesis songs from 1978 through 1992 (the years he toured with the band).
Sources: Daryl Stuermer's official Web site, http://www.darylstuermer.com; liner notes from the albums Another Side of Genesis and Steppin' Out (especially the introductory note to the latter album, written by Phil Collins)