#Marty stuart high on a mountain top professional#

It opens with the atmospheric sound effects of 'Me and Hank and Jumpin' Jack Flash,' a talking blues-emphasis on blues-about meeting Hank Williams in heaven. Because what we have here is a body of seamless music that can speak for itself and that's what impresses me most. If he wants to couch it in highfalutin terms about how his music represents the past, present and future all rolled up in one, I guess I can indulge him no matter how pretentious or calculated or marketing-oriented his designation is. But with this new release, I've become convinced that Stuart is really onto something. Which was a euphemistic way of saying that his own talents were slight, however good his taste in other artists was and however novel his ideas were.

I used to think of Marty Stuart as an eager, well-meaning fan with a great record collection.

He's doing just that with the passion of a purist, the insight of a scholar and the concentrated energy of a fireball. In Stuart's case, that's not merely fanciful thinking. and an anointment to carry on the musical tradition. The opening track, 'Me and Hank and Jumpin' Jack Flash,' is a talking-blues discourse in which Stuart relates a heavenly meeting with Hank, Sr. 'The King of Dixie' is Stuart's homage to Elvis Presley and country legend Hank Williams. 'This One's Gonna Hurt You (For A Long, Long Time),' an indulgently malicious duet with fellow no-hat act Travis Tritt reprises the two singers' success with last year's hit 'The Whiskey Ain't Workin'.' 'Now That's Country,' a declaration of Stuart's down-home credentials as a bona fide country boy-'I've got a pickup truck and a piece-of-nothin' farm'-swirls up a steaming brew of delta blues. And 'High On A Mountain Top,' which features harmony backing by Pam Tillis, is a tune that's been kicked around the bluegrass circuit by several performers since the Sixties.Įqually as interesting as Stuart's forays into the past, however, are the seven original songs that he wrote or co-wrote. Some of the music on T his One's Gonna Hurt You is genuinely old-fashioned: 'Just Between You and Me' was a Sixties hit for Charley Pride 'Doin' My Time,' an old Jimmie Skinner tune, is presented here as a perfectly conceived duet with Johnny Cash, perhaps Stuart's most revered musical icon. Stuart uses the mantle of his musical heritage as a springboard for his own creative fusions of the hallowed and the hip. Marty Stuart has rock 'n' roll hair but a country heart no other 'young buck' country star comes as well equipped or as eager to bridge the gaps between country's past, its present, and its future. Elsewhere, Stuart demonstrates his mastery of the bluegrass idiom on the long-gone-and-lonesome High On A Mountain Top and assets his adherence to country basics with tunes like Hey Baby, Just Between You and Me and Down Home.įor anyone who's ever had their heart broken, This One's Gonna Hurt You will be a painless experience indeed! Stuart teams with another young star, Travis Tritt, for the honky-tonk heartbreaker 'This One's Gonna Hurt You (For A Long, Long Time),' and joins forces with his one-time mentor Johnny Cash for the driving Doin' My Time. Marty makes his devotion to his musical mentors clear on the album's opening cut, Me & Hank & Jumpin' Jack Flash, in which the singer imagines himself in hillbilly heaven, consulting with the great Hank Williams, Sr.

#Marty stuart high on a mountain top professional#

That may sound like a tall order, but for this talented singer/writer/multi-instrumentalist-who got his professional start as a teenager playing guitar and mandolin on tour with Johnny Cash and Lester Flatt-it's a piece of cake. On his new album This One's Gonna Hurt You, hillbilly rocker supreme Marty Stuart continues to make music that's true to its traditional roots while remaining completely contemporary. But the most retro stuff gets too hamfisted to keep This One's Gonna Hurt You on the same level as Tempted.

With covers of Charlie Pride's 'Just Between You and Me' and Ola Mae Belle's 'High On a Mountain Top,' he makes you believe.

Stuart starts by relating how he received Hank Williams Sr's blessing in a dream. Sad songs 2009.This One's Gonna Hurt You - Album Reviews