SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

For hundreds of thousands, Marty Stuart is the very picture of nation music – splendid jackets, huge hair, musical mastery and his respect for nation’s traditions and an excellent jolt of humor, typically at his personal expense.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COUNTRY STAR”)

MARTY STUART: (Singing) I used to be raised by alligators within the pearl river swamp. Began out dancing on a boogie woogie stump. Stump fell in, went to the underside. Fish stated boys, smoke em’ if you happen to received em’. Ain’t that unusual? It is a thriller.

SIMON: That is Marty Stuart. He began his profession on the age of 12. Now, 5 a long time later, Marty Stuart has gained Grammys. He is within the Grand Ole Opry and the Nation Music Corridor of Fame.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COUNTRY STAR”)

STUART: (Singing) All I would like is a motor in my automobile. Crank it up, hit the street, be a rustic star.

SIMON: He and his band, the Fabulous Superlatives, have simply launched “Altitude.” It is their first new album in six years. Marty Stuart joins us. Thanks a lot for being with us. So nice to have you ever.

STUART: My pleasure, Scott Simon.

SIMON: I received to make clear one thing for the NPR viewers. You truly weren’t raised by alligators within the pearl river swamp, proper?

STUART: (Laughter) nicely, possibly that is perhaps a stretch.

SIMON: How did you start to carry out on the age of 12?

STUART: I feel I used to be a natural-born ham. I wished on a stage. Simply something to do with a vivid gentle and a stage, I wished to be part of it. I began my first band after I was 9. And what was occurring in that a part of the nation is that the music I used to be listening to was principally music of the British invasion, you recognize, by native pickers and native bands. However no one gave the impression to be enjoying nation music. And me and my little neighborhood band – we took off and began enjoying nation music. And that was, I felt like, the noble factor to do. And it felt good to my coronary heart.

SIMON: Yeah. How did Lester Flatts come into your life?

STUART: The primary two data I ever owned in my life was “The Fabulous Johnny Money” and “Flatt & Scruggs’ Best Hits.” And oddly sufficient, the one two jobs I ever had as a working musician was with Johnny Money and Lester Flatt.

SIMON: (Laughter).

STUART: Lester I met after I was 12 years outdated on the bluegrass pageant circuit, simply as a fan. And he had a fellow that performed in his band named Roland White, who invited me to return and simply trip together with the band for a weekend, which I did – begged my dad and mom to let me go do.

SIMON: Wow.

STUART: Labor Day weekend 1972. Over the course of the weekend, Lester heard me play and supplied me a job in his band.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “VEGAS”)

STUART: (Singing) Sparkles like a diamond when the solar goes down. Nighttime is the correct time on this desert city. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, Vegas.

SIMON: Judging by the lyrics on this album and possibly some others, you appear to put in writing so much on the street. I ponder if being on the street helps you look again at different locations with a particular type of understanding.

STUART: The street is my workplace. And driving by means of America, one of many best analogies I ever heard got here from Pete Seeger. I met Pete Seeger at Jazz Fest in New Orleans most likely in 1978 or ’79. Had an exquisite dialog with him, and I used to be decided to not bug him about Woody Guthrie. However I needed to ask one query. And I requested him about Woody, and Pete gave me probably the most lovely reply. He stated Woody was like a touring correspondent that rode on a boxcar by means of the world and seeking to the correct and seeking to the left and reporting on the human situation. I believed that was a really eloquent reply. A pleasant option to dwell a musical life is to report on what you see. That is a troubadour’s job.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “VEGAS”)

STUART: (Singing) 2 hundred miles of blacktop, a thousand high-line poles. In a dusty outdated ranchero, yeah, I am on a roll.

SIMON: Do you suppose nation music provides voice to folks – nicely, of all types – however significantly folks whose tales must be heard?

STUART: When it does its job correctly. There’s a whole lot of totally different denominations of nation music. There’s a whole lot of totally different tributaries of nation music. It was type of designed all the way in which again on the very starting of the downbeat of the industrial nation trade, again in, you recognize, July of 1927, when Ralph Peer found and recorded the Carter Household and Jimmie Rodgers and Pop Stoneman. They’re referred to as the Bristol Periods, the Massive Bang because it was referred to as. The nation music trade took flight proper there. And nation music was designed for gospel songs and bluegrass songs and pop songs and honky-tonk songs, simply songs of life. However as time has gone on, nation music is an enormous pop star now. It is a world entity. However down on the coronary heart and soul, you will discover songs that talk the tales. And that’s my favourite type of nation music, the songs that inform the tales.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “A FRIEND OF MINE”)

STUART: (Singing) Do you get bored with being advised the info when you recognize they are not actual? Do you get slightly mad when any person you do not know tells you ways you are alleged to really feel? Have you learnt in regards to the world sporting you down, and you continue to get left behind? If you recognize what I am speaking about, you are a good friend of mine.

SIMON: Inform us in regards to the track, “Buddy Of Mine.” I received to let you know, that track actually hit me within the photo voltaic plexus as a result of one factor I fear about within the job we do right here in broadcast journalism was your lyric, do you get slightly mad when any person you do not know tells you ways you are alleged to really feel?

STUART: I feel in such an age of social media, all people has an opinion. And it is complicated to know the place, you recognize, the middle of the road is usually. However “A Buddy Of Mine” goes again to what you simply stated beforehand about telling all people’s tales. I learn a good looking quote by Aretha Franklin one time. She stated, after I sing a brand new track, I shut my eyes and stick out my hand and hope any person takes it. And I feel “Buddy Of Mine” is the sequence of inquiries to the viewers. Do you relate to this? Do you perceive what I am saying right here? Effectively, if you happen to do, you recognize, we’re on the identical web page right here. It is fundamental humanity.

(SOUNDBITE OF MARTY STUART SONG, “A FRIEND OF MINE”)

SIMON: I perceive you’re a devoted collector of nation music memorabilia.

STUART: Oh, and have the insurance coverage invoice to show it.

SIMON: (Laughter). Effectively, what have you ever received, might I ask?

STUART: There’s about 20,000 items within the assortment. Proper off the highest of my head, Johnny Money’s first black efficiency swimsuit, the boots Patsy Cline was sporting when she misplaced her life, on and on and on.

SIMON: Is there something you actually hanker to pay money for however have not been capable of finding?

STUART: Actually, the very last thing I used to be in search of was an autographed 8×10 image of Jimmie Rodgers, the daddy of nation music. And it eluded me for years and years and years. And final yr, a good friend of mine purchased a Jimmie Rodgers fan scrapbook, and it had two 8×10 autographed photos of Jimmie Rodgers, alongside together with his enterprise card, private pictures from the household. So I received my want, and I could not imagine it. However I used to be proud to get that.

(SOUNDBITE OF MARTY STUART SONG, “ALTITUDE”)

SIMON: Inform us about your track “Altitude.”

STUART: I went round working my mouth that probably the most outlaw factor you are able to do in Nashville, Tenn., today is to play nation music.

SIMON: (Laughter).

STUART: And so “Altitude” got here alongside. And I believed, nicely, this can be a job for a metal guitar and twin fiddles and put it again within the framework of the traditional nation sound. And so I type of did that simply to again up my sensible mouth.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALTITUDE”)

STUART: (Singing) Altitude. Altitude. Ten million miles excessive, gentle years off the bottom.

SIMON: Is it good to be again on the street?

STUART: I can let you know, Scott, once we lastly received to return to work and I walked on the market at soundcheck and the bleachers then, you recognize, was empty, however the crew was there and all people was simply type of tiptoeing again into the water – and I bear in mind these bleachers going, I’ll by no means take this with no consideration once more so long as I dwell. And I have never. I have never.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALTITUDE”)

STUART: (Singing) I waited a lifetime to get to go and see.

SIMON: The good Marty Stuart. His new album with the Fabulous Superlatives is “Altitude.” Thanks a lot for being with us.

STUART: My honor. Thanks for having me in your present.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALTITUDE”)

STUART: (Singing) The land past the solar often known as altitude. Altitude. You get to go and keep, should give all of your love away.

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