Sorry folks, this ain’t no “old man yells at cloud” post…  no, I admit I’m waaaay past the sell by date when it comes to new country (with some rare exceptions) so if you want my two cents on “good country” I’m definitely going to lean old school and probably lean towards something with pedal steel, maybe a hint of fiddle, and some twangin’ guitar.  Yeah, you get touches of that in the new stuff but not near enough to grab me and want to run out and buy the CD or download a track or two on iTunes.  But if you really want to bend my ear throw on a Marty Stuart track so I can get that old school feel and DEFINITELY lots of that twangin’ geetar.

Been a fan of Marty’s since…  oh, I’d say maybe early 90s when he came out with his classic Tempted album and dropped a couple of duets with Travis Tritt (“This One’s Gonna Hurt You” is outstanding) but over the past 15-20 years or so he’s released a string of very good albums with his killer backing band The Fabulous Superlatives that are arguably the best of his career.  Maybe it’s maturity, maybe it’s no record company pressure to write hits…  or maybe it’s that he’s going to do what he wants to, critics be damned.  But that’s a funny thing…  at this stage of his career Marty Stuart is more of an ambassador for country music than anyone out there, which is hard to critique.  He’s got the sound, he’s got the songs, he’s got the band, he’s got the talent, he’s got the Nudie suits, he’s got the cool hair, he’s got the throwback TV show, he’s got the classic country, he’s got the classic country rock, he’s got the gospel (check out the great Soul’s Chapel), he’s got the bluegrass…  what else do you want if you like old school country?

Hard to pick one Marty cut out of all to highlight but I’m gonna grab one from the last decade and pick “Badlands”, the lead cut from the album of the same name that was issued back in the late 2000s.  This song walks the fine line of both country and rock and showcases the best of what Marty has to offer at this stage of his career-  a great lyric, strong chorus, great blend of vocals from the Superlatives, cool sing along moments, and most of all, some absolutely killer guitar work between Marty and fellow guitarist Kenny Vaughn.  It’s a blend of The Byrds, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Gram Parsons, and just a hint of Eagles in the vocal that makes this plenty memorable and one of those that will have you hitting the repeat button.  I’m not really much of a lyric guy but Marty paints a compelling picture of the plight of Native Americans while offering up hints of hope for “the second coming of the red man” and “good will come again” to those mighty Badlands.

So if you’re like me and you respect the new stuff but your heart is with the classic country sound with a dash of rock, grab you some Marty Stuart.  The pedigree (he was in Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash’s bands, for crying out loud), the talent, and the songs are all there so what are you waiting for?  GO…  BUY…  NOW!