JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – There’s a whole bunch of stories being told in one place. There’s a whole bunch of stories and country music artifacts collected by Mississippi’s own Marty Stuart.
I say Marty Stuart “collected” these artifacts. In reality, he “saved” a lot of them from oblivion. Treasured icons of the history of country music. There’s musical instruments like guitars that were owned by a bunch of stars, a harmonica of Bob Dylan’s, an outfit Porter Waggoner wore on the TV show and more. The Porter Waggoner Show is where we first met Dolly Parton, wearing the outfit.
That’s some of the kinds of stories these hats, suits, coats, and scraps of paper with handwritten lyrics jotted on them tell. These songs were just ideas when they were in this shape. They’re icons now.
Every item in the collection is a story that may have been lost to trash cans, yard sales, thrift shops or stuffed in the backs of closets had Marty Stuart not had the foresight to collect them.
The collection at the Two Mississippi Museums is called “The World of Marty Stuart.” It’s just a taste of what the Congress of County Music has planned for his hometown in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
“We have over 350 artifacts at the Two Mississippi Museums. He probably has 20,000 artifacts in his collection that will make up the Congress of Country Music in Philadelphia, Mississippi, when that finally opens,” said Brother Rogers with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH).
I can hardly wait to see the rest of the collection in Philadelphia because I love stories. Every item Marty Stuart has saved has a story. The whole collection is a story of preservation, thanks to Mississippi’s Marty Stuart.
