REVIEW
The Surprise
MARTY STUART
Marty Stuart and His Fabulous
Superlatives represent the
tradition of country music. They
made their entrance, without
sensationalism, simply the words
“let’s play some country music”. It
was clear we were in the presence
of country music dons. Heavily
involved with the new
documentary Born In Bristol, about
the birth of country music in
Bristol, Tennesse, Marty Stuart is a
passionate historian of the genre
and one of its finest guitar players.
I must confess to knowing
absolutely nothing about him
before he stepped out onto the O2
stage, and was honestly a
little underwhelmed at the
prospect of his set. But by the last
note of the first song, blues song
classic , ‘I ‘ Kn
K ow Yo
Y u Rider’
r , I was a fan.
r’
The Fabulous Superlatives each
had their turn in the spotlight,
justify
f fy ing their name with aplomb,
with ‘Handsome’ Harry Stinson later
emerging as a firm Facebook
favourite, following his version of
Woody Guthrie’s ‘Pretty
t Boy
ty
o Fl
oy
F oy
o yd
y d’
d ’ .
‘Cousin’ Kenny Vaughn, a guitarist of
breath-taking talent entertained with
‘Hot Like Th
T at’ t’ t and ‘Professor’ Chris
Scruggs, ‘Old Souls
l Like Yo
ls
Y u and Me’.
Their collective performance of ‘E
‘ El
E l
Paso’, in honour of the great Country
Music Hall of Fame guitarist
inductee, Grady Martin, was a totally
absorbing demonstration of classic
Texas country. With 469 words and
a “guitar part like playing the
national monument”, it was clear we
had to be hearing something special.
The Discovery DRAKE WHITE
For me Marty’s set represented the
roots of country music, the
musicianship, the entertainment and
genuineness. This is a man who
spent time with the legend Johnny
Cash as a member of his band (1980-
1985). I felt myself in awe as Stuart
talked about how Cash was a great
friend and, for five years, father-in-
law. He talked Cash with such
genuine fondness, that a lump came
to my throat. He told us how he
tried and tried to write a song in
Cash’s honour but it wouldn’t come.
Until, one day, he was in the orchard
that Cash had planted, between their
two houses and saw an old crow
sitting up in a tree. The crow
reminded him of ‘J ‘ ohn’ as he was
“raisin’ hell”, “ornery” and dressed
like him! The next morning the song
r Bird’
d came to him. His
‘Dark
rk
d’
performance of this song, produced
a real ‘I was there’ moment,
reminiscent of Chris Stapleton’s pin
drop performance of ‘Wh
W is
Wh
i key
e & Y
ey
Yo u’
last year. There were many more
wonderful stories like this. Marty is
one of those fascinating people you
could listen to all day. What he
doesn’t know about country music
and the people who helped build it,
isn’t worth knowing.
At the end of the night, I followed
the rest of the arena down to the cd
store to bag my signed copy of ‘Wa
W ay
Wa
a y
W st’ in the hopes of reliving this
Out We
brilliant evening of music. At one
point Marty had commented “it’s
good to know I’m amongst people of
my own kind”. Indeed. That, my
friends, was country!
Every year, the festival sees at least one act, a rising star that everyone leaves talking
about. This year without doubt the accolade goes to Drake White. With a quirky
style and bluesy soulful country voice to make the spine tingle, Drake White and his
band, The Big Fire, played the BBC Radio 2 Country stage, the Yamaha stage and the
Bluebird aft
f er show party, performing tracks from his debut release ‘Sp
ft
S ark
Sp
r k’
rk
k ’ . His
performance of ‘Maki
k ng
ki
n Me Look Good Ag
A ain’ on the Yamaha stage brought goose
bumps, when a reverential silence fell over the arena. He joked that it was about the
fact he ‘married up’. On the BBC stage earlier in the day, he took an audience
request to perform ‘Live Some’, and improvised an incredible song about his visit to
London to finish, when his drummer split a drum. Drake White is going to be
massive and you can fully expect to see him on the main stage possibly even
headlining in the near future.
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