Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives will perform Thursday night at Ashland’s Summer Motion Festival. The open-air concert is free and is on the River Stage at the Ashland Boat Dock located along the Ohio River downtown.

Marty Stuart has been in the music business professionally since he was 12 years old, playing with the Sullivan Family, Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash before striking out on his own. He is a Grand Ole Opry regular who is also known for his historic country music collections that include the famous stage clothes, musical instruments, and photographs of the genre's stars through the years.

After decades of dealing with the business side of music, Stuart struck out on his own in 2006 by creating his own record label - Superlatone Records.

"Superlatone is my playpen, I call it," said Stuart. "It's about artistic freedom. I feel like I've been creatively pardoned. The idea of it is that in the span of things, in the long run, I can look back at this section in time creatively and go 'Well, this truly represented what was going on inside of me and what I saw as an artist.'"

The albums on the new label include the electric gospel sounds of Soul's Chapel, the Native American-themed Badlands, and the bluegrass of Live at the Ryman.

Stuart's latest album is a collection of his duets recorded through the years called Compadres -An Anthology of Duets. Released by Hip-O Records, the album features songs sung with Johnny Cash, BB King, Merle Haggard, his wife Connie Smith, and more. In addition, two never-before-released songs were added including "Will You Visit Me On Sunday" with Loretta Lynn, and the classic song by The Who, "I Can See For Miles," reworked with the Old Crow Medicine Show.

As always, Stuart brings along one of the best live bands in the business, the Fabulous Superlatives. The group includes Kenny Vaughan on guitar, Harry Stinson on drums, and Paul Martin on bass.

While a lot of folks think that country music has lost its way, Stuart, ever the historian, says this about the genre.

"I think we have to be careful not to romanticize the facts about the 'good old days,' when everybody paid attention to their roots," said Stuart. "You know, chances are that in the 1970's there were probably not a whole lot more people that cared about A.P. Carter than today. There were always guys like me that did care, and did dig a little deeper, for some reason. I don't know why I do, but I do. I've probably always been that way. And, if you go back to the 20's, I promise you, after Jimmie Rodgers hit so big, when Bill Monroe came through in the 30's, probably everybody was saying, 'There it goes. Country music is going to hell. That guy that's singing high is tearing up Jimmie Rodgers' tunes.’

“So, it's always been about somebody standing up and saying that our precious country music is being threatened. Well, yeah, it's been threatened at every turn. But, the thing about it is, the future means a whole lot more to me at this point than the music of the past."

By Derek Halsey