Marty Stuart

John Marty Stuart (born September 30, 1958) is an American country and bluegrass music singer, songwriter, and musician. Active since 1968, Stuart initially toured with Lester Flatt, and then in Johnny Cash's road band before beginning work as a solo artist in the early 1980s. He is known for his combination of rockabilly, country rock, and bluegrass music influences, his frequent collaborations and cover songs, and his distinctive stage dress. His greatest commercial success came in the first half of the 1990s on MCA Records Nashville. Stuart has recorded over 20 studio albums, and has charted over 30 times on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. His highest chart entry is "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'", a duet with Travis Tritt. Stuart has won five Grammy Awards out of 16 nominations. He is also a member of the Grand Ole Opry and Country Music Hall of Fame. John Marty Stuart was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on September 30, 1958. He learned to play guitar and mandolin as a child, and by age 12, he had joined a gospel band called The Sullivans. While a member of this band, Stuart met mandolinist Roland White, a member of Lester Flatt's backing band; White invited Stuart to perform with Flatt at a concert in Delaware in 1972, which led to him becoming a regular member of that band. He continued to tour in this capacity until Flatt retired in 1978, and recorded an independent album called With a Little Help from My Friends that same year. After this, Stuart performed with Vassar Clements and Doc Watson before joining Johnny Cash's band in 1980. In 1982 he released a second album called Busy Bee Cafe on Sugar Hill Records. The album was composed of a jam session that included a number of country and bluegrass performers such as Cash, Watson, and Earl Scruggs. In 1985, Stuart accompanied Johnny Cash to Memphis and played on the Class of '55 album that also featured Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis. At the end of the session, Perkins presented Stuart with his guitar. Later that year, Stuart left Cash's band and landed a recording contract with Columbia Records. Stuart released his self-titled debut album on Columbia in 1985. The album accounted for Stuart's first chart entry on Billboard Hot Country Songs charts with his first single release, "Arlene". Three other singles charted from the album in 1986: "Honky Tonker" and "All Because of You", both written by Steve Forbert, and Stuart's own "Do You Really Want My Lovin'". However, these songs were less successful on the charts. The success of "Arlene" helped Marty to receive a nomination by the Academy of Country Music Awards for Top New Male Vocalist, losing to Randy Travis. AllMusic writer Jim Worbois gave the album a mixed review, stating that it was "Not a great album, but made somewhat more interesting by some of the people appearing on the record and the inclusion of two Steve Forbert songs." He recorded a second album for Columbia titled Let There Be Country, which charted two singles in 1988: Merle Haggard's composition "Mirrors Don't Lie" and "Matches". Due to the underperformance of the singles, Columbia chose not to release the album, and Stuart exited the label to return to Mississippi. After briefly rejoining the Sullivans, he returned to Nashville and signed with MCA Records in 1989. That label issued the album Hillbilly Rock that year. Co-produced by Tony Brown and session guitarist Richard Bennett, the album charted four singles on Hot Country Songs. First was a cover of Cash's "Cry! Cry! Cry!", followed by "Don't Leave Her Lonely Too Long", which Stuart wrote with Kostas. While these were unsuccessful on the charts, the album's title track (written by Paul Kennerley) became Stuart's first top-10 country hit in 1990. The album's final release was "Western Girls", which Stuart also co-wrote. Hillbilly Rock was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1997 for shipments of 500,000 copies. His second MCA album, Tempted, followed in 1991. The album charted four singles on Hot Country Songs between 1991 and 1992: "Little Things", "Till I Found You", "Tempted", and "Burn Me Down", of which all except "Till I Found You" reached the top 10. Bennett and Brown stayed on as producers, with the former also contributing alongside Stuart on both guitar and mandolin. Kennerley and Kostas contributed as both songwriters and backing vocalists; also performing backing vocals on some tracks were Billy Thomas and Ray Herndon, who were also recording on MCA in McBride & the Ride at the time. Jana Pendragon of AllMusic gave the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, comparing it to Dwight Yoakam's Hillbilly Deluxe in style and saying, "Stuart kicks country-pop in its well-defined hindquarters[…]But Stuart is just as deadly when he slows things down and does a ballad." Also in 1991, Stuart co-wrote a song with Travis Tritt called "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'". Recorded on the latter's 1991 album It's All About to Change, this song was released in between "Tempted" and "Burn Me Down". It went on to become Stuart's highest chart entry, reaching number two on Hot Country Songs in early 1992. It also won Stuart his first Grammy Award, for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals that year. This song's success also led to the two touring in 1992 as the No Hats Tour, because unlike most contemporary country musicians, neither Tritt nor Stuart sported a cowboy hat. His next MCA album, This One's Gonna Hurt You, came out in 1992. The lead single "This One's Gonna Hurt You (For a Long, Long Time)", also a duet with Tritt, was a top-10 hit in 1992, but the followup singles, "Now That's Country", "High on a Mountain Top", and "Hey Baby", were less successful. Kennerley and Cash were once again among the contributing vocalists, while Ashley Cleveland and Pam Tillis both sang backing vocals on "High on a Mountain Top". Johnny Cash provided duet vocals on "Doin' My Time", while the track "Me and Hank and Jumpin' Jack Flash" sampled voice recordings of Lester Flatt, Hank Williams, and Ernest Tubb. Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly rated the album "A", finding the "stylistic mix" superior to preceding albums, noting influences of bluegrass, Southern rock, rockabilly, and blues in his delivery and song choices. Also in 1992, Columbia issued Let There Be Country. This One's Gonna Hurt You was certified gold by the RIAA in 1993. Stuart won his second Grammy Award in 1993, in the category of Best Country Instrumental Performance, as one of several featured artists on Asleep at the Wheel's cover of "Red Wing" on their 1993 album Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Love and Luck was his next album, released in 1994. Only one single, "Kiss Me, I'm Gone", made top 40 from the project. Stuart co-produced the album with Brown, while also contributing on guitar, mandolin, and songwriting. The album's opening title track featured Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, and Harry Stinson on backing vocals. Also included were two covers: Billy Joe Shaver's "If I Give My Soul" and The Flying Burrito Brothers' "Wheels", as well as the mandolin instrumental "Marty Stuart Visits the Moon". Daniel Gioffre of AllMusic highlighted these three tracks in particular as being among the strongest on the album. Nash rated the album "B", stating, "As a singer, Marty Stuart has all the zip of unbuttered toast, and as a writer, too many of his songs float aimlessly...Yet Stuart has genuine love for the early country greats and injects his own work with such impassioned strains of old hillbilly styles, that he charms in spite of his limitations." Following this album, MCA issued a compilation called The Marty Party Hit Pack in 1995, which contained singles from his previous MCA albums, as well as "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'", the previously unreleased "The Likes of Me" and "If I Ain't Got You", and two cover songs previously found on multi-artist tribute albums released in 1994. These were a