![]() Not long after meeting Smith, Stuart made his fateful trip to Nashville. At eleven, Stuart went to the Choctaw Indian Fair, and his mother snapped a photo of him with RCA recording artist Connie Smith. He listened to the Grand Ole Opry each weekend, and he paid attention to local guitarist Lethal Jackson (father of Stuart’s childhood friend Carl Jackson, who went on to become a Grammy-winning producer and musician). Raised in Mississippi by parents-John and Hilda-who encouraged his early love of music, Stuart learned to play mandolin and guitar as a small boy. He has done so with a preacher’s fervor, a deacon’s reverence, and a musical skill set that allows him to contribute mightily onstage and in the studio with artists of varying sounds and styles. The child who told his high school teacher that he would rather make history than learn about it has spent his life making history, often alongside those Stuart calls country music’s “Old Testament masters,” including Flatt, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Bill Monroe, Porter Wagoner, Doc Watson, and Mac Wiseman. It was a gift placed in my hands to use at will.” “The one that set me on my way and marked the true downbeat of my journey. ![]() “It seemed like a divine appointment,” Stuart wrote. At the conclusion of the weekend, Flatt asked Stuart to join his band, to play with him on the Grand Ole Opry, and, in essence, to commit his life to country music. Thus was Stuart’s entry into a Nashville music community that he has enriched over the past forty-nine years. Minutes later, bluegrass veteran Roland White picked up the thirteen-year-old in a 1965 Chevy Impala and took him to safety, and the next day White and Stuart boarded Lester Flatt’s tour bus at Higgins’s Gulf Station in Hendersonville and rode to Delaware to play a music festival. He gazed at the venerable Mother Church of Country Music and knew he had found a home, a mecca, and a mission. ![]() History books tell us that John Marty Stuart was born September 30, 1958, in Philadelphia, Mississippi, but in many ways he was born on August 3, 1972, when he got off a Greyhound bus in downtown Nashville in the early morning hours and walked the hushed city streets to the Ryman Auditorium. DMM Disc Cutting: H.-J.After apprenticing in the bands of Johnny Cash, Lester Flatt, and Doc Watson, Marty Stuart forged a career carrying forward country’s traditions, finding success as a recording artist, songwriter, and multimedia emissary for country music.Better still, the pressing quality and re-mastering is limited-run twenty-first century quality, not to forget the superior quality gatefold sleeves. Even better, they're back on LP - the medium for which most of them were intended. Hailed as great records or CDs at the time, the albums in Bear Family's new series are now acknowledged as Americana classics. Richard Bennett - Nashville, Tennessee - January 2014ĪMERICANA CLASSICS - ONLY FROM BEAR FAMILY!Īmericana classics from the '70s, '80s and '90s, now back - on LP! With this Bear Family vinyl re-issue they've gained a history of their own. Both albums reflect that tradition and history of country music. Looking back nearly 25 years later I'm still very proud of them. I'd moved to Nashville with an eye to making records exactly like Hillbilly Rock and Tempted. As a musician, songwriter, historian, collector, photographer, author, television host and performer, Marty's a one-man army for the salvation of country music. I very quickly came to have a deep regard and respect for Marty Stuart that continues to this day. Marty knew everybody and we shared a serious love affair with country music, its history, tradition and artists from an earlier time. Marty Stuart was a young, old pro.Īs we began pre-production and choosing songs for that first album, I got to know Marty and learned of his coming up in the business playing with Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash. The guy had miles of charisma and presence like Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Lester Flatt, Porter Wagoner, Cash and so many others. It's not that I was sold on what Marty was doing as much as how he was doing it. Tony, then vice-president of A&R at MCA Records in Nashville and on his way to becoming the top producer in town, whispered to me, I'm thinking of signing Marty, would you want to co-produce him with me?' Yes, of course I would. Tony Brown and I watched from the wings as Marty swaggered his way through the opening set. I was aware of Marty Stuart from his single Arlene on Columbia Records, but my first encounter with him was new year's eve 1986 in Atlanta, Georgia when he shared a show with Steve Earle.
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