By Guy Chapman – Navarro County Gazette
Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives will be performing one night only at 7:30 p.m. this evening at the Palace Theater, located at 112 W. Sixth Avenue in Downtown Corsicana. You can buy tickets for the performance here.
In the meantime, the Navarro County Gazette had an opportunity to sit down with Stuart to talk about his career, and what his upcoming show will be like.
Marty Stuart’s career has been active in the country and bluegrass music scene since 1968, performing as a singer, songwriter, and musician. Stuart initially toured with Lester Flatt, and then later as part of Johnny Cash’s road band before breaking off to become a solo artist in the early 1980s.
NCG: Have you visited the Palace Theater in Corsicana before?
Stuart: “I think so. I know we’ve played Corsicana, and I imagine that would have been at the Palace. I think it was 10 years ago, so this will be like the first time.”
NCG: What brought you to include this venue as part of your current tour?
Stuart: “We haven’t played Corsicana in 10 years, and that’s all the reason we need.”
NCG: For those unfamiliar with your background and musical style, tell our readers a little about yourself.
Stuart: “It’s been about a 50-year journey so far. I started when I was like 13 years old at the Grand Old Opry with Lester Flatt, and then after Lester passed away, I worked with Johnny Cash’s band for five years. And then after that came to an end, it’s been about making music with my own band ever since.”
NCG: You had a professional and personal history with Johnny. Can you tell a little bit about what it was like working with him, knowing him as you did?
Stuart: “Well, what you see is what you get. He was worthy of everything good said about him. He was truly an American original, and icon, one of the master architects of American music and pioneered so many roads that a lot of us still travel on. And just a once in a lifetime character. And I loved him. I miss him every day. He was my mentor and chief.”
NCG: You have an extensive collection of country music memorabilia outside of your own personal experiences and having worked in the industry. What prompted you to start this collection?
Stuart: “It looked important. Those artifacts looked important, and they were winding up at the junk stores at the edge of Nashville. The first piece I bought was a personal artifact of Patsy Cline for five dollars, and that was just unacceptable. And then I started looking around and there were a lot of personal effects of the master architects and pioneers that had been dropped off to the side.
First of all, those were the people that raised me, and I didn’t want to see that, and second of all, this looked like an important strand of American culture that needed preserving and rescuing.”
NCG: What are some of your personal favorite items in your collection?
Stuart: “Johnny Cash’s first black suit, handwritten lyrics by Hank Williams, the boots Patsy Cline lost her life in…. That’s the level those items pretty much throughout that collection.
NCG: Are they displayed all in one place, or are there several venues that host the collection?
Stuart: “We’re building a cultural center around that collection in my hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi called the Congress of Country Music. But right now, about three hundred and fifty of those artifacts are on display at the State Museum in Jackson, Mississippi until the end of the year.”
NCG: Are you still presently hosting the Marty Stuart show?
Stuart: “No, we haven’t done that in about eight or nine years. It was 156 episodes.
They still rerun the show on the weekend, I think a few times a week, something like that. You can view them on YouTube, of course, but the channel is called RFDTV.”
NCG: For audiences that haven’t seen your show before, what can they expect?
Stuart: “It’s a night of world-class music, and it’s deep into the pool of country music. It will take you out of your reality zone and put you in a good place, and leave you with a smile.”
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