There are some holy relics in Marty Stuart’s guitar collection. He has Staples Singers soul legend Pops Staples’ old rosewood Tele, a gift from the Staples family after Pops passed. There’s also the first ever B-Bender Telecaster - modified to bend notes hauntingly like a pedal-steel - which originally belonged to country-rock trailblazer Clarence White.
Stuart’s 1939 Martin D-45 acoustic might be the talisman of them all. It was formerly owned by Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Jr. “John used it on a lot of those Johnny Cash ABC TV shows,” Stuart says. He’s referring to Cash’s variety show which ran from 1969 to 1971 with guests including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Louis Armstrong.
“And it’s in that famous photograph of him leaning up against the train,” Stuart continues, “when he (Cash) was on the cover of Life magazine. It was a part of a lot of important occasions, and that’s just his sliver of it. So yes, it has a great presence to it. And that kind of presence is preceded by the fact that it’s like playing a Steinway piano. It’s just an absolutely profound instrument, regardless of who had it.”
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But an instrument, no matter how profound, can’t play itself. And that D-45 is in worthy hands. Stuart is known for his tasty virtuosity on guitar and mandolin and has spent a lifetime keeping roots sounds present tense. In his teens, he was a member of bluegrass Lester Flatt’s band and then worked with two more giants of that genre, Vassar Clements and Doc Watson.
Stuart joined Johnny Cash’s road band in 1980. He was with Cash, who along with Hank Williams comprise country’s twin towers, for five years. From there Stuart embarked on a successful solo career, his resonant vocals scoring on hits like “Arlene,” “Tempted,” “Burn Me Down” and “Little Things.” With his twangy-dandy personal style, Stuart looked the part too. In the ‘90s he began collaborating with Travis Tritt, including the hit duet “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin,” after first hearing a Tritt song on the radio while Stuart was in a Burger King drive-thru in Birmingham, Ala.
The Fabulous Superlatives have been Stuart’s band since the early 2000s. In addition to Stuart, their lineup currently features guitarist Kenny Vaughn, drummer Harry Stinson and bassist Christ Scruggs. They’re playing a show 7 p.m. Jan. 22 at the Princess Theatre, address 112 2nd Ave. N.E. in Decatur. Tickets starts are $25 and up via ci.ovationtix.com. More info at martystuart.net. On a recent morning, Stuart called in for the following phone interview. Edited excerpts below.
Marty, as someone who’s played so many shows, when was the last time you were nervous playing music in front of people?
I’ve always said, when I see people getting started that are nervous here’s what will take care of that: If you get out there and start working so hard you get numb, and it just becomes second nature and you don’t think of it anymore. And I might’ve got past that … Well, I’ll you what. About two years ago, they were honoring Ricky Skaggs at the Country Music Association Awards show. And it was live. And there’s so much that can go wrong so fast on those live broadcasts like that, when there’s 40 bands in a row. And I think I remember saying to myself, “You really have to pay attention here because if you blow it, there’s only 2 billion people watching,” or whatever it was.
And David Letterman’s (late night TV) show, back when we did the Letterman show.The thing that was hard there is that studio was kept so cold. Just getting guitars in-tune … I was tuning my guitar until the curtain came up and then just hoping for a good performance. Live TV at that level, that makes me pay a little extra attention.
Recently you’ve been rolling out a digital album called “Songs I Sing In The Dark” song by song. As a musician so schooled in tradition, what appeals to you about doing an album this way?
Absolutely nothing. [Laughs] Because I still love putting the records in my hand and reading it and looking at it and looking at the cover photo over and over. It’s a reflection of the times. The whole concept is, because it was born of the pandemic, when the band was not on the road. We were through with all our projects and I was sitting at the house doing absolutely little to nothing, and I was thinking, “Well alright. What have you thought about doing down through the years but haven’t?” Those ballad-y kind of songs, those quiet songs.
Back in the day you recorded duets with both B.B. King and George Jones, around the same era. A blues legend and a country legend. What’s something B.B. and George had in common, in terms of how they made music, their vibe or just as singers?
Well, right off the bat they were both country boys and they were both were soul singers. I remember when we did that record “Rhythm, Country and Blues” back in the ‘90s, where us country people were paired with rhythm & blues and souls stars. I did a track with Staples Singers, “The Weight,” which was a suicide mission because that song should never have been touched again, but it was an excuse to work with The Staples and start a relationship. But I remember asking Mavis (Staples), “Who did you listen to, when you were traveling in the cars and stuff and figuring it out?” And she said, “We listened to country music. We listened to the Grand Ole Opry.” And she said, “Who did you listen to?” And I went, “You.”
So it was just one of those things where I think everybody listened to everybody. But it was astounding to me how many of those rhythm & blues and soul stars, if not country music singers or players in their own hearts, at least they liked the craft of it.
Outside of recording or performing, how much guitar do you play these days around the house, at the hotel or on the bus?
There are guitars in several chairs around the house, and I’m a doodler. And I tend to pick up a guitar, sit down, spend five minutes with it or watch something on the screen and just don’t think about what I’m playing. I love playing the guitar. I should sit down and formally practice, but I don’t until it’s time to learn something with the band. But I love knowing that they’re around. Guitars are my pals.
What sort of setlists are you doing on this current tour?
OK, so depending on the room … Every now and then we pull up to a room and go, this is not a room that you should put drums on the stage and a whole bunch of Fender amplifiers and Telecasters on the back pickups. It’ll kill people and take the paint off the back wall. And so at that time we just switch over and do an acoustic set, which is just as cool.
For the full-on Superlatives show, our setlist has stuck pretty close to the same setlist for the past couple of months, and it doesn’t lean very much on what we used to do, like old radio hits or anything like that. There are a couple of those in there. But there’s surf instrumentals, there’s adventurous cosmic cowboy songs, traditional folk songs. It’s just a good visit to the Superlatives band hall, is a good way to put it, I guess.
You’ve won, I think, five Grammy Awards. I watched an interview clip with you where you say, “Every Grammy matters.” Some artists are flippant about winning a Grammy, and I’ve heard of artists using them as a doorstop or to drink shots out of. Why does every Grammy matter to you?
Well, I read a statement one time where somebody said, “Every kid likes to get a gold star at Sunday school somewhere along the way.” And that’s pretty good. I just think the Grammys matter because it’s an industry acceptance and it’s just your peers saying, hey good job, pal. And I’ve been on both sides of it, where I’ve been the one to vote for somebody and I’ve been on the other side as the one who received them. So it’s just a show of goodwill. And, not that you need any, but further validation for the work.
You were the producer on the 1986 Johnny Cash gospel album “Believe In Him.” You’d been in his band, obviously. But as a record producer you’re guiding a recording similar to how a director guides a film. How do you guide or give direction to a musical giant like Johnny Cash? How do you tell someone like that “do it this way” or “not that way?”? What’s interesting about producing someone who’s already a legend?
Well, I’ve seen the same thing in him or when I did Porter Wagoner’s record or some of the records I’ve done on Connie (Smith, country music singer and Stuart’s wife). Legends need guidance as well as newcomers. We all as artists need guidance, somebody that has a 30,000 foot view of the situation. And a lot of times legends get lost in the shadow of their own legend. In John’s case, at that particular time, he was trying, we were trying, everything to get the world to care about Johnny Cash again. And the truth was that gospel music was his first love. And some of those songs were not great and some of them were OK. But it was a reason to go to the studio and work.
Same with Porter. Porter thought he had to keep up with current trends and I knew that was tragic. I went, “Man, let’s go back to being Porter Wagoner. You had it right when you came to town in 1952.” He went, “Well, I can do that. Let’s do that.”
Connie was just kind of lost. One producer after the other. I said, “Let’s go back and make Connie Smith music.” It usually amounts to somebody that can tap you on the shoulder that you have some regard for their opinion and them going, “Let’s put this back into the framework where it started at and what made everybody love it.” Then it’s just a matter of the right songs, and then a matter of the right musicians and those kind of things. But it usually starts with going to the lead horse going, “Let’s quit chasing and go back to what made it great in the first place.”
John was really producible. He really was. He knew if it was good or bad, instantly. Same with Porter. Same with Connie. Those people have been through so many projects and so it makes it a lot easier. And I think producer might be a strong word. Probably more of a casting agent.
What’s something you learned from your time with Johnny Cash that sticks with you most to this day?
Everything about working with him still matters. But the thing I think that has followed me more than any anything else, and I’ve said this before, he was the most fearlessly creative human being I’ve ever known. Back to that gospel album I produced on him. We both knew that it wouldn’t sell 30 copies. We both knew that it was probably more for us than anybody else. That’s a perfect example. And he was that way about anything, whether it was a song or a record he was making, a film he wanted to do. If he believed in it, if nobody came, if nobody cared other than him, the most important thing was the act of doing it. To follow your heart. And that has left me in very lonesome spots sometimes. But it’s also served me very well. And I feel at the end of the day, I feel absolutely fulfilled living that way.
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