ALBUM REVIEW: Marty Stuart Reaches New Creative Heights with ‘Altitude’

Near the end of his new album, Altitude, over the locomotive drive of the track “Tomahawk,” Marty Stuart delivers the song’s key observation: “There’s absolutely nothing new underneath the sun.”

That pretty much goes for music too. So, the question facing any artist is: How do you keep it sounding fresh and vital?

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives (photo by Alysse Gafkjen)

Stuart has figured it out. A country music warhorse who began playing with Lester Flatt when he was just 14, the Mississippi native has forged a five-decade career in which he has become known for his love and encyclopedic knowledge of country music. But as an artist, he has not let himself be straitjacketed by the music’s traditions. Especially since the 1999 concept album The Pilgrim, he has stretched country music’s boundaries with terrific results that match his expansive creative ambitions. Call him a progressive traditionalist.

On Altitude, Stuart is again backed by his longtime band, the fittingly named Fabulous Superlatives – guitarist Kenny Vaughan, drummer Harry Stinson, and bassist Chris Scruggs. And once again, they do not repeat themselves.

Whereas 2017’s Mike Campbell-produced Way Out West wallowed in evocatively airy atmospherics that conjured the American Southwest, the self-produced Altitude takes many of its cues from the cosmic cowboy stylings of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers. The overture, returned to twice on the set, is even called “Lost Byrd Space Train.”

Vaughan’s ringing 12-string helps drive “Sitting Alone,” which shares a sense of alienation with the acoustic reverie “Space” (“I feel so ‘out’ with the ‘in’ crowd”), accented by Stuart’s sitar. “Vegas” is a twang-banger that borrows the tagline of Byrds and Burritos alumnus Gram Parsons’ “Ooh Las Vegas.” Similarly tangy licks inform the swaggeringly propulsive “Country Star,” with another 12-string turn by Vaughan. “Night Riding” adds some bluesy bite, while the exhortative “Time to Dance” features a searing guitar solo that is the album’s most rough-edged and cathartic.

Like “Space,” the dreamily seductive, string-kissed “The Sun Is Quietly Sleeping” flirts with hippie-dippy-ness. But in general Stuart keeps everything grounded in the emotional honesty that is the hallmark of the best country. That’s especially evident on the stark, acoustic-textured “The Angels Came Down,” a quietly moving tale of personal redemption.

The title song is the closest Stuart and his Superlatives come to traditional country. It’s a straight-up honky-tonk shuffle, abetted by steel and twin fiddles. On it, Stuart sings about getting to a height “where all that’s old is new.” With Altitude the album, he has again reached that lofty level.

Altitude by Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives is out May 19 on Superlatone.