Marty Stuart & Me

Just last night at Mountain Stage I got to meet one of my earliest musical influences, Marty Stuart. If you're not familiar with country music you probably have no clue who Marty Stuart is. He started out playing with Lester Flatt (one ofn the fathers of Bluegrass) when he was something like 13, and has been sort of a country music educator and purist, not to mention hit-maker, ever since. But even as somewhat of a purist he's shaped up a form of country that rides the fence between commercial modernism and traditional heritage very nicely. He's a guy who has never stopped learning.

Before I talk about our brief meeting, I'm going to reflect on how Marty's music became such an influence on me.

I'm pretty sure the first time I saw/heard Marty was at my friend TJ's house. We were just running through the living room and I remember seeing the video for “Cry, Cry, Cry" on CMT. I was WAY too young to know that it was a Johnny Cash song and that Marty was doing his part to keep the great music alive (this is long before the second coming of Cash, via Rick Rubin). The video was so sparse, especially by today's standards. It was Marty on vocals and guitar, a stand-up bass player, and a drummer playing a snare with brushes and maybe a bass drum. I just remember that he was standing up. They all stood in front of a white background with the occasional close up of Marty in those tight-ass jeans, twitching his hips like a geriatric Elvis might have.

I stared at the TV until the video was over and I saw who the singer was. I wouldn't become enthralled though until his first duet with Travis Tritt hit the airwaves, "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'." What a song. My family probably wishes they'd never recorded it, because for a month at least, it was the only thing playing out of my stereo. It was catchy, it was fun, and it was stereotypically country
"I need one good honky-tonk angel/To turn my life Around
And that's a reason enough/For Me to lay/This old bottle down
A Woman warm and willin'/That's what I'm lookin' Fo-woah/
Cawz the whiskey Ain't workin anymore. . ."

What a song.So I borrowed my sister's boyfriend's copy of the Travis Tritt tape that had "Whiskey" on it and I was kind of into Travis Tritt for a while there. But then came the second duet, "This One's Gonna Hurt You." This time it was on Marty's album of the same name. This tape, I'm nearly positive, was the first tape I ever bought with my own money (at Magic Mart in Rainelle, WV). However I couldn’t locate it when I went digging through my tapes. I managed to find “Tempted,” which could be the second tape I ever bought, so that would have to suffice as an autograph carrier for when I met the man himself.

I shook Marty’s hand and told him he was one of the major influences that made me do what it is I do today. “It’s all your fault” I joked.
“I’m sorry!” he laughed.
I pulled “Tempted” out of my pocket and I said “This is the first tape I ever bought with my own money,” to which he replied, without hesitation, “Oh, you want your money back?” He agreed to sign the tape sleeve for me and posed for a picture. I didn’t bother him any more that evening besides a tap on the shoulder and “Great job,” after his set (like he needed ME to tell him that).

There’s something printed in the linear notes to “Tempted,” that makes me think Marty hadn’t just chose “Cry, Cry, Cry” because it was an obvious hit worth recycling. And I doubt that Rick Trevino’s cover of Marty’s “Honky Tonk Crowd” did for other listeners what Marty did for me by redoing Cash.

“I mean hard rockin’ Hillbilly Music. That’s what I feel. I’m a bridge between past and the future. Johnny Cash once told me that to be a rebel in Nashville without offending anyone was to abide by the traditions of the past, and keep evolving and expanding into the future on your terms. It flatters me that people that have never heard of Roy Acuff happen to like us too! And that gives me a chance to tell ‘em about ACUFF.” Marty Stuart–1991

What I wish I could’ve conveyed to Marty last night was that he’d done just that- Over a period of years of course. Hearing Marty lead me to Cash, and Cash led me to Hank, and Hank to Roy Acuff and the circle keeps going and going. So, even though I may’ve came off as just another giddy Marty Stuart fan, I really hope that Marty knows he’s influenced me so greatly, and hundreds and thousands more just like me. He’s continually shaped his own sound on his own terms. And by going into the past, for his latest record “Badlands,” Marty has again taken his career into the future on his own terms.

You see, Badlands is somewhat of a concept album, put together in remembrance and reverence for the Native American people, especially those of North Dakota. And Marty isn’t exploiting them by any means. He’s once again playing historian; documenting through music the travesty and injustice done to the Native Americans by us pale skins. He’s making sure that history doesn’t repeat it self. After all, those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Marty is an example of the continous proof that I can never learn it all. There exists evidence that those who yearn for knowledge, of any kind, will forever be searching. You see, the more the thirsty drink, the more they want for that quenching. I’ll never stop learning about music, nor will I ever be satisfied knowing what I know. I’m only satisfied when I’m learning. There’s always more out there and, for me, hearing it is not enough.

Every single thing out there was inspired by something or someone else, and it probably wouldn’t exist without the inspiration. It’s not exactly a vicious cycle, but a vicarious circle. And just like the spirit of those Native Americans and the spirit of Hard Rockin Hillbilly Music, the circle will be unbroken. By and By . ..