Marty Stuart thankful opening for Chris Stapleton, ‘the man carrying the flag for country music’
Marty Stuart remembers his first night on the road with Chris Stapleton.
It was the opening show on a string of 2017 dates that brought together two generations of country music tradition. Stuart was the elder, the scholar who began playing alongside musical legends while in his teens before cultivating one of country’s most lasting roots- driven voices. Stapleton was the conquering Lexington-born, Paintsville/Staffordsville- raised hero, a veteran songwriter who became, in just over three years, one of the few country traditionalists to maintain a lasting commercial presence on the charts and at the box office.
“The first night, the very first night that we played with Chris, he came on the bus and thanked me and the band for being out there with him,” Stuart recalled. “I said, ‘Don’t thank us. We’re here to thank you. I’m here to support you because I believe in you. You’re the man carrying the flag for country music. Besides, if I didn’t believe in you, you don’t have enough money for me and the band to be here. That’s the truth.’ And he said, ‘I know that.’
“Every night, it’s magic and it works. There is Chris and there is everybody else as far as I’m concerned. I’m very proud of what he’s doing, and he’s doing it real. It’s just him and three or four guys onstage. No bells and whistles, just pure talent and raw energy. He nails it night after night.”
From playing in the final touring band of bluegrass great Lester Flatt while still in his early teens to a string of commercial country hits in the 1980s and ‘90s to a series of revivalist projects exploring country, rockabilly and roots music traditions, Stuart has been one of the most complete musical journeymen of his generation.
A look at his current itinerary reveals just how far Stuart’s artistic reach still extends. In between arena dates with Stapleton this fall, he is touring with Byrds co-founders Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman in a 50th anniversary program honoring the seminal progressive country album “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.” Then in December, Stuart travels to Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York to continue a series of roots music concerts with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Steve Miller. It would take an afternoon to outline all the other projects he has coming to fruition.
The common thread within the performance work he currently has in motion is a stylistically flexible but roots-savvy trio called the Fabulous Superlatives. Made up of guitarist Kenny Vaughan, drummer Harry Stinson and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Scruggs, the Superlatives serve as the backbone of the Byrds tribute shows, the onstage foil for Stuart at the Stapleton gigs and the complimentary support for the Miller collaborations.
“From the first rehearsal, I knew this was a legacy band,” Stuart said. “I’ve used them as musical missionaries and mercenaries, however we want to term it. They’re my Buckaroos (Buck Owens’ band), they’re my Strangers (Merle Haggard’s band), they’re my Tennessee Three (Johnny Cash’s band), they’re my Foggy Mountain Boys (Flatt & Scruggs’ band), my Bluegrass Boys (Bill Monroe’s band). I’ve never encountered a band with the range and depth of these guys. That’s the musical part of it. The other part is we’ve never had an argument. We’re brothers. We love each other. It’s just an incredible band to be part of.”
The latest recorded example of the musical melding Stuart and the Superlatives are capable of is the splendid 2017 album “Way Out West,” a record that departs from the deep country tradition of previous works for music that, as the title suggests, heads West and Southwest. With Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell as producer, the record favors accents of Marty Robbins and Merle Haggard as much as storied Nashville inspirations. A touch of vintage psychedelia reveals itself here, a dose of West Coast surf lurks there, making it one of the most musically robust records of Stuart’s extended career.
“We had been really working hard on freshening up, promoting and preserving traditional country music because it’s just basically non-existent in Nashville anymore, and making sure that the last of the old-timers got treated with dignity and love. So ‘Way Out West’ was just a little bit of a turning of the wheel without taking our hands off of the mission.”
IF YOU GO
Chris Stapleton
Opening: Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, Brent Cobb
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 27
Where: Rupp Arena, 430 W. Vine
Tickets: Sold Out
Online: rupparena.com, martystuart.net
This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 4:13 PM.