Marty Stuart spent
his early career as part of Johnny Cash’s
backing band, and 20-plus years later, with a
number of hits to call his own, he remains a
solidly unstarlike country star—someone who’s
spent the bulk of his career not in alt-country
opposition to Nashville but just off to the
side, supporting another’s turn in the
spotlight. If that’s been frustrating for him,
he sure doesn’t show it; instead he almost seems
to revel in the low profile, whether that means
winkingly billing his current bluegrass band the
Fabulous Superlatives or letting his drummer,
Handsome Harry Stinson, steal the show with a
lung-defying held note on a live performance of
the bluegrass gospel standard “Working on a
Building.” That song appears on Stuart’s live
gospel album from earlier this year—and he’s got
a half-secular, half-sacred two-disc set, Saturday
Night / Sunday Morning (Superlatone),
coming out shortly before this show. With their
mix of retro rockabilly (“Jailhouse”), retro
honky-tonk (“Rough Around the Edges”), and
reverent bluegrass gospel, the albums make no
claim to idiosyncrasy or genius. Stuart won’t
wow you, but his easy, unassuming love for the
music is always center stage.
By
Noah Berlatsky
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