Stuart John Wolstenholme was a founder-member of Barclay James Harvest, together with John Lees, Les Holroyd and Mel Pritchard, in 1967. He remained with BJH until 1979, when he became frustrated and unhappy at the direction their music was taking. He recorded a solo album, Mæstoso, in 1980, with guest musicians Steve Broomhead on guitar and Kim Turner on drums. With the addition of bassist Terry Grady, this trio formed a new band, also called Maestoso, and toured as support to Judie Tzuke and Saga. A projected second album, Black Box, was shelved and Woolly lost interest in the music business, preferring instead to farm, initially in Lancashire and later in west Wales. Tapes from the sessions for his second album were finally issued in 1994, along with the complete Mæstoso album, as Songs From The Black Box.
Woolly returned to the music business in 1998 with John Lees in Barclay James Harvest Through The Eyes Of John Lees. In between working with John, Woolly also reconvened the Maestoso band, with new bassist Craig Fletcher and drummer Kev Whitehead, and a new studio set, One Drop In A Dry World, followed in May 2004. A limited, warts and all live CD, Fiddling Meanly, with Kim Turner back in the drum seat, was released in February 2005. This is proving to be one of Woolly’s most creative periods, with another Mæstoso studio album, Grim, appearing in October 2005.
In 2006 Woolly not only toured with John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest, including the first full-scale UK tour by any members of Barclay James Harvest since 1992, but also found time to begin recording another new studio album with Mæstoso. The album, Caterwauling, was completed by the following spring, but held up in the transition of Eclectic Discs into their new identity as Esoteric Recordings as part of the Cherry Red group of labels, and was finally released on 19th November, 2007.
