Paul Martin Of The Fabulous Superlatives Steps Up To The Microphone For New Album
This appeared in The Tennessean - December 24, 2013
“The Apostle” Paul Martin, bass player in Marty Stuart’s band The Fabulous Superlatives, takes his turn at the microphone in his recently released Kentucky Jukebox Vol. 1 The Country Sessions.

The package contains a CD, DVD and 24-page color booklet complete with family pictures. Songs on the album include numbers from Stuart’s RFD-TV show The Marty Stuart Show, as well as songs more personal to Martin, including one he wrote for his wife, Jamie Martin, called “Angel on Earth.”

“The object of the game here, for me, was, if you don’t even know or care to know who I am, if you listen to this, you’ll be entertained,” he said.

Kentucky Jukebox Vol. 1 The Country Sessions also contains snippets of performances from Martin’s musical parents, Texas and Bill Martin. His dad, now deceased, had a recording studio, so Paul Martin was able to find clips of himself singing as a young child in addition to previously unknown songs from his parents. And he was able to creatively make it all fit on the album.

“The album is almost like an old-time radio show in a way,” Martin said.

To that end, the Kentucky native narrates parts of Kentucky Jukebox and said it covers about 60 years in music.

Martin says his favorite tracks on the collection include a version of “Old Kentucky Home” that features himself on piano and other instruments, his wife and children on harmony vocals and Stuart on mandolin.

“It starts out sounding almost like a church version, and then when it gets to the solo, it sounds like Appalachian folk,” Martin said. “Jamie’s dad (Duane Allen of The Oak Ridge Boys) says, “Paul, you captured magic on that song.”

On a cover of the George Jones/Melba Montgomery song “We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds,” Martin was able to concoct a way through old recordings to have his parents and his wife’s parents both featured on the song.

“It’s cool because they all get to sing together,” he said.

And so far, the response has been all positive. Martin, who sang lead for country group Exile in the late-1980s, said his former bandmates even came out to his release party to pick up a copy.

“I said, ‘Like it or not, maybe you’re not playing on this, but this is the culmination of all the things that have come through my life in music,’” he said. “It’s your fault.”

Martin’s album is available at www.martinfamilycircus.com.
By Cindy Watts
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