The ‘real stuff’ of country music. Marty Stuart brings effortlessly authentic show to town.
Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives
7:30 p.m. March 7 at the Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short. $45.50. 859-233-3535, 800-745-3000. lexingtonoperahouse.com, ticketmaster.com, martystuart.net.
Consider yourself a fan of country music? Not the Luke Bryan/Luke Combs school of Nashville pop convention, but the real stuff - music that honors tradition, its place in the modern world and the means to explore it within expert singing, songwriting and musicianship? If so, you’re likely a fan of Marty Stuart.
It’s hard to pinpoint which aspect of the singer and multi-instrumentalist’s nearly life-long career best defines Stuart’s artistic persona. Let’s begin with his role as a preservationist. Sure, the records he has fashioned in recent years with his long running Fabulous Superlatives band have re-introduced country, country-gospel, bluegrass-inspired country (or country-inspired bluegrass, depending on your perspective) to the post-Garth Brooks generation. But Stuart’s diligence in upholding tradition goes way beyond that. He has taken his love of roots music to the masses. Case in point: he made very visible contributions as a historian-level interviewee for Ken Burns’ majestic “Country Music” series that aired last fall.
Secondly, Stuart is a survivor of the industry. He scored a string of country hits in the early 1990s (“Tempted,” “This One’s Gonna Hurt You” and “Hillbilly Rock,” among them) only to fashion his finest roots-conscious music once the Superlatives (guitarist Kenny Vaughan, drummer Harry Stinson and, most recently, bassist Chris Scruggs) were formed in 2002.
Then there have been the instances where Stuart’s music has traveled through delicious and stylistically rich time warps, as on 2017’s “Way Out West,” easily one of the finest entries in his 40-plus year discography. By employing guitarist Mike Campbell (first lieutenant in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Stuart centered in on a vision of a mythic and often retro-leaning version of the American West. The world he found mixed cowboy tradition with traces of psychedelia, surf and cinematic-level soundscapes.
What brings Stuart back to Lexington this weekend for his first local outing since opening a sold out Rupp Arena concert by Chris Stapleton in October 2018 is an expanded reissue of “The Pilgrim.” The 1999 concept album marked a significant move away from the Nashville mainstream into a song cycle of original works far too grim and fatalistic for country radio to even begin to digest. The old guard understood, though. Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Earl Scruggs, George Jones and Ralph Stanley all contributed to the record.
How these sounds and inspirations come together onstage with the Superlatives, however, is the reason for taking in Stuart’s Saturday show at the Opera House. The four create a live fabric that is effortlessly authentic, accessible and fun.
“From the first rehearsal, I knew this was a legacy band,” Stuart said of the Superlatives prior to the 2018 Rupp concert with Stapleton. “I’ve used them as musical missionaries and mercenaries, however we want to term it. They’re my Buckaroos, they’re my Strangers, they’re my Tennessee Three, they’re my Foggy Mountain Boys, my Bluegrass Boys. I’ve never encountered a band with the range and depth of these guys.”
Winter Jam 2020
6 p.m. March 7 at Rupp Arena. 430 W. Vine. $15 at the door. 859-233-3535. rupparena.com, 2020.jamtour.com.
Rupp Arena continues its most active winter in recent memory this weekend. No sooner does Zac Brown Band move out after a Friday evening performance than the facility reassembles for Winter Jam 2020 to move in, bringing a sense of Sunday morning devotion to Saturday night revelry.
Winter Jam is Christian music’s largest annual touring event with multiple artists and speakers. True to its name, the trek began in mid-January and will continue through late March.
Headlining an eight-act bill at Rupp (the tour roster varies from city to city) is Crowder, the Texas-born songsmith and instrumentalist who has become something of a crossover sensation since establishing himself as a solo artist following a 16 year run as frontman for the David Crowder Band. Two Crowder solo albums, 2014’s “Neon Steeple” and 2016’ “American Prodigal” reached the Top 15 of the all-genre Billboard 200 charts. His newest recording is 2018’s “I Know a Ghost.”
Completing the Winter Jam 2020 bill will be Passion, Andy Mineo, Building 429, Red, Austin French, NewSong and speaker Louie Giglio with a “Pre-Jam Party” by Riley Clemmons, Ballenger and Zauntee.
Here is the distinctive part to Winter Jam’s presentation. The performance utilizes no advance ticket sales. General admission is by a $15 donation at the arena entrance.
Julian Lage and Dave King
7 p.m. March 10 at The Apiary, 218 Jefferson St. $20-$25. originsjazz.org, julianlage.com.
Kuzu
7:30 p.m. March 10 at the University of Kentucky John Jacobs Niles Gallery, 160 Patterson Dr. Free. daverempis.com/kuzu.
How much jazz can a city like Lexington dispense during a single evening? Well, as we will find out next week, more than even the most devout fans of the music can take in. That’s because two immensely recommended performances will be presented simultaneously. But that wasn’t the initial plan.
The surprise in this mix is a last-minute booking by the Origins Jazz Series of a duet performance featuring Grammy nominated guitarist and composer Julian Lage and Bad Plus drummer Dave King. The two were supposed to be in the middle of a Japanese tour next week, but overseas traveling was curtailed due to concerns over the spreading coronavirus. That meant a slew of 11th hour Stateside bookings, including the Tuesday Origins show at The Apiary.
Lage is an extraordinarily versed guitarist who has recorded and toured with such luminaries as Gary Burton, Nels Cline, David Grisman and John Zorn. However, his Kentucky exposure has primarily come from duo concerts with Punch Brother guitarist Chris Eldridge. King was here with The Bad Plus as recently as December 2018.
The two collaborated on Lage’s fine 2019 album “Love Hurts.” The record is a mix of standards (“I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”), daring jazz reworkings (Keith Jarrett’s “The Windup”) and originals (Lage’s “In Circles”). The compositions, with Lage’s fluid electric tone regularly recalling the playing of John Scofield, were cut as trio pieces completed by bassist Jorge Roeder. The Tuesday performance literally cuts out the middleman and opens the music up within a guitar and drums framework.
The only downside to having Lage and King in town on such short notice is that their concert falls right on top of an already-booked performance at the University of Kentucky’s Niles Gallery featuring the improvisatory trio Kuzu.
The concert is the newest offering in the long-running Outside the Spotlight series and the latest group project – for Lexington ears, at least – to feature Dave Rempis. The Chicago-based alto, tenor and baritone saxophonist has played locally in over a dozen different ensemble settings for the series, most of them as a leader.
Kuzu’s newest album, released last month, is titled “Purple Dark Opal.” It consists of a single 55-minute improvisation, “To the Quick.” The music grows out of a subtle, scattered set of percussive snapshots into runs of combustible trio fire from Rempis, guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Tyler Damon. The album was recorded during a Milwaukee concert in October 2018.
The Lage/King concert is a ticketed event. The Kuzu show is free. But don’t let that serve as a barometer for which show you take in. Both are prime jazz picks (even if there isn’t a single bass player between either band) and come equally recommended. That Lexington scored both on the same night is a true embarrassment of musical riches.
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 11:10 AM.
