Having pulled the highest attendance at the Iowa State Fair of any modern Grandstand concert, Chris Stapleton has already conquered the state of Iowa. As he arrives again at Des Moines’ Wells Fargo Arena on June 22 though, audiences would be remiss not to pay special attention to one of his openers, Marty Stuart.
Not only is Stuart a veteran member of the Grand Ole Opry and an inductee in the Country Music Hall of Fame, but the band he leads is impressive to boot.
While the native Mississippian has long been a keeper of the flame for country music tradition — “authenticity” is the term he prefers — he and his band (Marty Stuart and the Superlatives) represent one of the more progressively dynamic forces in Nashville. This made them the perfect choice to serve as the band for the 50th-anniversary tour celebrating the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, joining forces with founding Byrds Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. That album remains the Rosetta Stone of the country-rock synthesis.
On Altitude, the latest in a series of conceptually ambitious albums, Stuart and the Superlatives send that spirit soaring eight miles higher, finding common ground for honky-tonk twang, Byrdsian jangle and stratospheric interplay. You can hear the Byrds in it everywhere, from the first single, “Country Star” — which offers Nashville homage — to the mesmerizing “Space,” to the multiple “Lost Byrd Space Train” instrumental interludes that add mystery and majesty throughout.
“On that Byrds tour, I have no doubt that those sounds and songs, and the love that we shared backstage and from the audience coming back, followed me around when it was time to create this record,” said Stuart.
“And then there’s such wisdom and experience in every band member,” he continued, referring to Superlatives’ guitarist Kenny Vaughan, drummer Harry Stinson and bassist Chris Scruggs. “You could throw the ball to any of them. Everybody is a musical professor, someone who could teach a course.”
Stuart was already on at least the third chapter of his storied career when he recruited his Fabulous Superlatives a couple decades ago, looking for something of a fresh start. He had served his apprenticeship as a 13-year-old mandolin prodigy with Lester Flatt and had then joined Johnny Cash’s band while in his early 20s.
On his own he enjoyed some success as a “hillbilly rock” revivalist and won a Grammy-award for a duet with Travis Tritt. Then came his 1999’s concept album, The Pilgrim, which served notice that he was no longer focusing on country hits, and it suffered commercially because of it. An artistic triumph nonetheless, it provided a springboard that altered his musical trajectory in the 21st century.
In 2002, he recruited hotshot guitarist Vaughan — who had impressed Stuart thanks to his playing with Lucinda Williams — and drummer Stinson,who was previously with Steve Earle. Bassist Scruggs is the most recent addition, having joined the band in 2015.
He also launched the Superlatone Records label, toured tirelessly and relentlessly and hosted a long running country showcase, The Marty Stuart Show, on RFD-TV. The format allowed Stuart and band to show their versatility and virtuosity as they backed musical guests on a weekly basis for six seasons. They showed they could play pretty much anything behind pretty much everyone, on a program that sometimes seemed like a hee haw for hipsters (and remains readily accessible for rerun streaming).
Talk to critics who know anything about country music and they’ll tell you that this may be the best band in the country. Not best country band. Best band, period. They inspire the sort of cult passion that NRBQ once did, or Rockpile with Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. Their spirit makes them an ideal touring complement to Chris Stapleton, another artist who doesn’t seem to fit the Nashville commercial mold.
“As far as mainstream country music goes, there’s Chris and then there’s everybody else,” said Stuart. “He is just so far ahead of the pack; he’s so brilliantly gifted, and what a singer! The thing we share in common is he is a world class musical citizen. He loves everything, and he is a sponge when it comes to talking music, and his tributaries are deep.
“So we have no problem whatsoever talking about any denomination of music and musicians. And I think the thing that our fan base and his share in common is they like to come and hear real music.”
Don McLeese teaches journalism at the University of Iowa. He has been writing about books and music, movies and TV, politics and popular culture, since the dawn of time.
