Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives – Country Music

Four years ago, Marty Stuart released the best album of his career, The Pilgrim. Critics loved it, but nobody bought the damned thing. He went to work scoring movies, and playing on and producing other people’s records, with no idea how to follow it up.

The good news is, he finally figured it out. He dropped his old band, the Rock & Roll Cowboys, built a new one with guitar slinger extraordinaire Kenny Vaughn, drummer Harry Stinson and bassist Brian Glenn, and named them the Fabulous Superlatives. This configuration lit a flame under his ass and has gotten him fired up to make music again.

Country Music kicks off with an amped-up rocking cover of the Porter Wagoner chestnut “Satisfied Mind” that showcases Stuart’s innate ability to resurrect classic country music tunes and add that little something that makes them sound contemporary again. “Sundown In Nashville”, a rousing honky-tonk number that features the pedal steel playing of Robbie Turner, should have been the first single instead of “If There Ain’t There Ought To Be” (which features Stuart’s lame attempt at rapping).

The album doesn’t really reach its stride until about midway through on a song Stuart penned with wife Connie Smith called “Farmer’s Blues”, a touching duet with Merle Haggard, and “Tip Your Hat”, a roll call of classic country music featuring Uncle Josh Graves and Earl Scruggs. The album closes with a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Walls Of A Prison”, a simple, stripped-down song that allows all the emotion to pour forth.

Country Music picks up where The Pilgrim left off. It’s more commercially accessible, yet still eclectic and challenging. Stuart’s journey just keeps getting more interesting.