Today, the 5-time GRAMMY winner, Country Music Hall of Famer and AMA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient MARTY STUART announced his new album, Altitude, will be released on May 19 via Snakefarm. The announcement of his first new album in more than 6 years finds Stuart on the heels of a string of professional and personal achievements in an already unprecedented career. Late last year, MARTY STUART AND HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and he celebrated his 50th year in Nashville and 30th anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member. In December, Stuart and his wife Connie Smith kicked off the grand re-opening of the historic and recently renovated Ellis Theater in his hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi, which Stuart has been working to re-open for seven years as part of his Congress of Country Music.
MARTY STUART AND HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES commemorated the announcement with the release of the album’s title track “Altitude” along with a visualizer for their previously released single “Country Star.” Altitude is now available for pre-order.
Stream/embed “Altitude” via YouTube: https://youtu.be/oBakEt_TErg
Watch the visualizer for “Country Star” via YouTube: https://youtu.be/z59LHnsyVpY
“I’ve been quoted as saying the most outlaw thing you can possibly do in Nashville, TN, these days is to play country music. It can be done,” Stuart explains. “On ‘Altitude,’ there’s twin fiddles, steel guitar, and the legendary Pig Robbins playing piano on what turned out to be one of his last recording sessions. The song is a reminder to me, and to anyone else still interested, that there’s a few of us out here who still know how to make authentic country music. I have an absolute belief that there’s a world of people out there who still love it, as my wife Connie Smith says it’s the ‘cry of the heart,’ Harlan Howard said ‘it’s’ three chords and the truth’ – that’s country music.”
Recorded in Nashville with his longtime band THE FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES – Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson and Chris Scruggs – the collection finds Stuart picking up where he left off on 2017’s Way Out West, exploring a cosmic country landscape populated by dreamers and drifters, misfits and angels, honky-tonk heroes and lonesome lovers. Written primarily on the road, the collection was inspired in large part by Stuart’s 2018 tour supporting Byrds co-founders Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, who reunited for the 50th anniversary of their seminal Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album.
“I bought my first copy of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo for $2.99 at the discount bin in a shopping mall record store in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, and it became the blueprint for my musical life,” Stuart recalls. “Revisiting it on the road with Roger and Chris put me back under its spell all over again. I was writing songs in dressing rooms and soundchecks and on the bus, and then one day, I looked up and there was enough to make an album.”
“I’ve always loved songs that feel like old friends but still sound new and fresh,” says Stuart about Altitude. “The beautiful thing about country music is that the blueprint Jimmie Rodgers laid down—rambling, gambling, sin, redemption, Heaven, Hell—it’s all just as relevant now as it ever was. It’s the human condition, and if you’re honest about it and you’ve got a real band around you, you can make something that’s uniquely yours and stands the test of time.”
Altitude tracklist:
1) Lost Byrd Space Train (Scene 1)
2) Country Star
3) Sitting Alone
4) A Friend Of Mine
5) Space
6) Altitude
7) Vegas
8) The Sun Is Quietly Sleeping
9) Lost Byrd Space Train (Scene 2)
10) Night Riding
11) Tomahawk
12) Time To Dance
13) The Angels Came Down
14) Lost Byrd Space Train (Epilogue)
About Marty Stuart:
Marty Stuart is a five-time GRAMMY-winner, Country Music Hall of Famer, platinum recording artist, Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the Americana Music Association, Grand Ole Opry star, country music archivist, photographer, musician, and songwriter. Since starting out singing gospel as a child, Stuart has spent over four decades celebrating American roots music. His teenage years on tour with bluegrass legend Lester Flatt in the ’70s were followed by six years in Johnny Cash’s band in the ’80s, and a chart-topping tenure as a solo artist in the ’90s. Recently, The Country Music Association announced the induction of Marty Stuart into the Country Music Hall of Fame’s class of 2020 in the Modern Era Artist category. In addition, Stuart is raising awareness for The Marty Stuart Congress of Country Music (MSCCM) in Philadelphia, Mississippi which will celebrate the rich cultural heritage of country music through live musical performance and educational programming. More details here: www.congressofcountrymusic.org.
Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives are on tour now – current tour dates and tickets are available here.
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