MUSIC

Marty Stuart Returns to Headline ROMP

Written by DANNY MAY Photo by ALYSSE GAFKJEN

2020 COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE MARTY STUART REMEMBERS ROLAND WHITE (KENTUCKY COLONELS, BILL MONROE’S BLUEGRASS BOYS) TAKING TIME TO SHOW HIM SOME MANDOLIN LICKS AT BILL MONROE’S BEAN BLOSSOM BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL IN 1971. WHITE EVEN GAVE THE YOUNG MARTY A MANDOLIN PICK AND ONE OF HIS BLUEGRASS BOYS SCARF TIES TO KEEP AS A SOUVENIR. SO WHEN MARTY LOOKS OUT IN THE CROWD FROM HIS HEADLINING SPOT ON SATURDAY NIGHT AT ROMP, HE CAN’T HELP BUT SEE HIMSELF IN SOME OF THOSE YOUNG, WIDE-EYED FACES AT YELLOW CREEK PARK.

“From early on at these festivals, it’s been that way,” Stuart explains. “Fans have direct access to the masters, and you could walk up to one of them after a show and say, ‘how did you do that’ and they would show you. Now, when kids come up to me, I feel the same way inside as I did when I was a kid with Roland or Lester Flatt. So now it’s my turn. When that happens to me, it always takes me back for a minute to remember where I came from.” Way before his chart-topping country radio hits in the 90s, Stuart grew up listening to bluegrass music and got his start playing in Lester Flatt’s band as a teenager. A few years later, he was invited to be in Johnny Cash’s touring band, which helped pave the way for Stuart’s solo career. Then, in the midst of the changing landscape of country radio in the early 2000s, Stuart decided to reinvent himself and formed his legacy band, Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives, in 2002. Together, they recorded Stuart’s landmark album, The Pilgrim, and have been touring ever since, including performances at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2018 and 2020, as well as ROMP in 2016. But for ROMP 2022, they’ll be taking the stage as the headlining act on Saturday night, which Stuart says is an honor. “We’re not a bluegrass band. We play rockin’ country. But what I remember about ROMP is the fans have a very broad taste and the festival has a wide array of bands. I think authenticity is the key word, and when you play from an authentic place, people know.” Part of that authenticity is also the reason Stuart couldn’t give readers a preview of what songs to expect on the set list at ROMP in this interview. He says one of the many talents of The Fabulous Superlatives is they have a vast set list they’re comfortable with so they can approach each show diferently. When they get to ROMP in June, they’ll feel it out and decide that day what to play. Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives have a busy touring schedule in 2022, with a full spring and summer in the states and a fall tour overseas. But Stuart says he’s especially looking forward to ROMP and their other festival shows. “That’s what’s so great about the original vision for bluegrass festivals. First of all, it gave bluegrass a chance to get out of taverns and mom & pop places and take the music to a wider audience. But festivals also developed a sense of community and fellowship among musicians and fans, too. I’ve seen pictures of Bill Monroe sitting on a wooden bench at a festival teaching fve or six people something on his mandolin. That’s where all this came from: just sitting around picking and enjoying the music. Now we have bluegrass bands forming in almost every town. That’s how far we’ve come.” Even though Stuart is best known as a country star, he’s always maintained his bluegrass roots, and has a good sense of how bluegrass music is evolving. “I used to be a firsthand bluegrass player when I started, and I’ve gotten to play with so many of the bluegrass greats over the years. The thing I find encouraging as I look around these days is I still see so many young people playing mandolins and fiddles alongside guitars and singing bluegrass-style harmonies. I see a new crop of young musicians year after year after year. And that tells me that bluegrass is in a good place at the heart and soul level. Young players are how bluegrass will keep reinventing itself. You now have the McCouries and Ricky (Skaggs) and Rhonda (Vincent) and those folks that carry the torch with such fire and they have that global reach. But then you have Billy Strings out there who is getting some serious box office wherever he goes, and that’s wonderful. Now you have a Sirius XM radio stream and WSM radio that does ‘Out of the Blue.’ So I think the state of bluegrass music is really good right now.” OL “To me, that sense of discovery when you go to festivals is what it’s all about. You hear a song you’ve never heard before or hear music you never knew existed and then you can deep dive once you get home. Festivals (like ROMP) have introduced a lot of people to new artists and new songs.” MARTY STUART CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Country Music Hall of Fame class of 2020 Five-time Grammywinner Platinum recording artist Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the Americana Music Association Grand Ole Opry Member LISTEN TO MARTY’S LATEST RECORDINGS “SONGS I SING IN THE DARK” ON YOUTUBE OR AT HIS WEBSITE, MARTYSTUART.NET