Folk Troubadour, environmentalist, and adventurer: Meet the One-Eyed Man who has planted over 500 trees since lockdown
Folk artist Stuart Hutton, also known as One-eyed Man to his fans, has planted over 500 trees for the charity, ‘One Tree Planted.’ He has a new single release, ‘I will be reminded’, which tells the tale of a friendship forged on the road as an itinerant singer.
Stuart has received a certificate for having planted officially 500 trees worldwide, across Asia, Australia, Costa Rica, and the Congo.
“There was an element of chance to how it all started.”
In 2022, One Eyed Man hosted a show in Reading at local music hive, The Butler, in which an audience vote was held. Audience members voted with their tickets, which of three environmental charities the takings from the show would be donated to. By the end of the evening, One Tree planted came out as the majority, and the journey catapulted from there.
Out of his own pocket, from the proceedings of over a hundred gigs, and from street busking, Stuart planted 355 trees in 2022.
One Eyed Man, as he is known by fans, is deeply influenced by his travels, adventures, and a lifelong love of nature.
“My philosophy is that it’s easy to get lost in the day to day. It’s important that we don’t lose touch with the important things in life. The environment is something which is nourishing, and available to everyone.”
His most recent release on 1st January 2024, an original, “I will be reminded” is dedicated to his late friend Milan, and was released a year after his tragic passing. The song won him a slot at the Wimborne Minster Folk festival, as well as the recording session for the final mastering of the song.
Along his journey’s as a backpacker across Asia and Australia, Stuart met fellow traveller, Milan. Linking up in Darwin, Australia in 2018, the two quickly became friends, who shared a passion for nature and travel.
It was friendships like these, alongside the sometimes perilous and bizarre occurrences throughout his travels, which forged One Eyed Man.
Often living hand to mouth, One Eyed Man was initiated into the world of musicianship and performance for survival. And like the troubadours of old, Stuart grafted a living with his voice and a guitar.
Alongside this, “I worked every casual job under the sun, in sometimes dangerous conditions.”
Since returning from the hardships of the road, Stuart works as a self-starting digital marketer during the day, from his flat in Wokingham. At night, he ventures out to gig as an established professional musician.
His husky vocal tones and crisp fingerpicking acoustic style distinguish his sound, and his lyricism is tinged with the melancholic and melodic auto-fiction of his journey’s.
He hasn’t ventured far from the early days as a travelling musician, and instead of changing his sound, he has grown it through his technical set up.
A loop pedal to offer layers to his sound, stomping foot-percussion, and bigger amplification make him a one-man band to be reckoned with.
When away from the computer or the stage, he plants trees, often with friends. His most recent was a Cheery tree he planted on a friends’ farm in Oxford, which took a whole day to plant. This too, was a gift to his late friend, and was entirely self-funded.
The farm will soon be converted into a wedding venue. He remarks that “It will be nice to think of the backdrop it will provide for when people get married.”
“I also wanted to make sure I left some form of legacy that isn’t entirely selfish, and is for everyone to enjoy.”
Since lockdown, Stuart made a pledge to plant ten trees every time one of his friends had a baby. We asked him how many had been born in this time, and he “honestly has lost count.”
