Marty Stuart is returning with a road tested album perfectly put together by himself and his Fabulous Superlatives. ‘Altitude’ is Stuart’s first new album in six years and will drop on May 19th via Snakefarm. The 5-time GRAMMY winner, Country Music Hall of Famer and AMA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient is a seasoned professional but had to adapt his usual way of working for this particular record.
“The album almost didn’t happen,” he begins. “Because we had it up and going out on the road, and we were gonna go back home and record it, and then the pandemic hit. So we put on masks and recorded under all those kinds of restrictions and it was hard but we did it and I’m glad we did. Because I did the record, fixed it up, got it mixed and mastered, and then let go. I forgot about it for several months and I recently heard it from top to bottom and thought that’s pretty good.”
Some of the songs on this record have been in the pipeline for years including the first single off the album, ‘Country Star’. “Some of it is true, some of it is fiction,” he reflects. “It was a song that just kind of came out of nowhere. I wish I had a deep story for it but it was just a likeable song that appeared on a piece of paper one day with a melody around it. We actually tried the song once on my old TV show, and I thought we got pretty close, but I knew we didn’t quite have it. Sometimes the best thing you can do for a song is leave it alone for a while, you can get too close to it. A couple of years later, I had to revisit the song and on going back to it after all that time away, we fine tuned it.”
Late last year, Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, made up of Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson and Chris Scruggs were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame, he celebrated his 50th year in Nashville and 30th anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member. Through his yearly Lat Night Jams at the Ryman Auditorium, Stuart has collaborated with anyone who is anyone within music and is a master of seeking out new talent. “Most of those people that I ever dreamed of playing with I did. And I married the one I love the most you know, so it’s all good,” he laughs as he refers to his wife and fellow country legend, Connie Smith.
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