Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives to Play Harris Center, 10/22

Years from now when they're talking about the great personalities in country music, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, they'll mention Marty Stuart. He'll be among those personalities because he's never been afraid to follow his vision . . . to stretch the boundaries of country music . . . to make big statements about music and society. Marty and his band, The Fabulous Superlatives, bring his talents and visions to Harris Center for the Arts for just one performance on October 22.

For over forty years, the five-time Grammy winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, photographer and historian has been building a rich legacy. On his latest release with his band, The Fabulous Superlatives, the double-disc Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, Stuart captures all the authentic neon and stained-glass hues of country music - from love and sex to heartache and hardship to family and God - in twenty-three tracks.

Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives will perform Wednesday, October 22, 2014 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are priced at $29-$39; Premium $49. Tickets are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from the Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from 10 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. Harris Center is located on the west side of Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street.

"I've always thought that country music had a really unique relationship with gospel music," Stuart says. "It is interesting to me that country stars can sing drinking and cheating songs authentically, then at some point during the evening or the broadcast, take their hats off and say, 'Friends, here's our gospel song.' If it's the right messenger it seamlessly flows. That's a time-honored tradition, from Jimmie Rodgers to Hank Williams to Johnny Cash. Rogue prophets and rogue preachers. That is my world."

Born in the small town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, Marty Stuart caught the music bug early, displaying prodigious talent on every stringed instrument he picked up. At an age when most kids are running bases in little league, 13-year old Stuart was logging cross-country interstate miles as a mandolinist with the legendary Lester Flatt's road band. In his twenties, Stuart toured with Johnny Cash, and also played with other legends such as Bill Monroe, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. By the late 1980s, Stuart was a solo artist, rising faster than mercury in the heat of a hillbilly fever. But amidst the hits and hoopla, the bright lights eventually revealed a deeper truth. "I had such a great run, playing butt-wigglin' songs in coliseums, and it was just wearing thin," he admits...I was beginning to chase after hits, and it was tearing me apart. I had one record left on my contract with MCA, and I vowed to get back to the music I've always loved the most, and let my heart be the chart.'"

To get some clarity, Stuart consulted his friend and mentor, Johnny Cash. "I went to his house and said, 'J.R., I've got a record in my mind called The Pilgrim. I laid it out to him, and he said, 'Well, just know you're stepping up for rejection. Potentially.' I said, 'I understand, but I've got to do this.' He said, 'If you've got to do it, that's all the reason you need.' So I made the record. It was a great critical success, and it was a line-in-the-dirt artistic moment of reconnecting with my true self, a piece of myself that I had hidden away years before, to go exploring. From that moment forward, I realized that there's a different way to live a life as a musical citizen."

Stuart knew he didn't want to travel this new path alone, so he recruited fellow musical missionaries Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson and Paul Martin.

"From the Superlatives' first rehearsal, I knew this was the band of a lifetime," Stuart says. "I knew this was my Buckaroos, my Strangers, my Texas Troubadours - my legacy band. Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson and Paul Martin are not only musical geniuses, but statesmen. With acclaimed albums like Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions and Souls' Chapel, as well as The Marty Stuart Show, a musical variety program on RFD-TV, Stuart says "I've found my place to drive a stake in the dirt, and proclaim, this is what I believe in."

"I think traditional country music should be regarded alongside jazz and ballet and classical music in the pantheon of the arts," he says. "I thought, 'As a band, that's our mission. Putting our arms around what's left of the culture. Making sure the old timers get loved on and shown dignity.' And then it became, let's show young musicians that traditional country music is alive and well. The message is, C'mon, over here and play it if it's in your heart."

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