Marty Stuart - Compadres - An Anthology of Duets

Marty Stuart has been performing country music since he was a teenager. In fact, one of those appearances, with Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass, is highlighted on this collection, with his phenomenal performance, at the tender age of fourteen, of the instrumental "Rawhide" on mandolin. He'd actually started playing for Flatt at thirteen, on rhythm guitar, but moved to mandolin after Flatt's previous mandolin picker (Roland White) left. Stuart stayed with Flatt's band for six years. When Flatt passed away in 1979, Stuart stretched out stylistically, and before he turned twenty, became a member of Johnny Cash's band. But it was 1982's release of Busy Bee Cafe on Sugar Hill Records that really got him started on his own, and he followed up with a few more discs before moving to MCA and making his big breakthrough with the wildly successful Hillbilly Rock in 1989. Three years later, he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry (and remains a regular to this day). He has stretched his musical style, taking on everything from commercial bluegrass to roots blues and back to bluegrass, and never compromised on quality. His 1999 The Pilgrim is perhaps one of the finest pieces of album concept artistry I've ever heard. But art, of course, rarely sells to a mass audience, and so Stuart has been out of the mainstream limelight for a while (but that doesn't mean he's been idle!).

Being the true artist he is, having an album that didn't produce any "hits" hasn't slowed him down any. He's remained busy, recording and working on projects from a remarkable collection of his photographs, Pilgrims: Sinners, Saints and Prophets, to producing the work of the likes of Billy Bob Thornton, the Sullivans, and Leroy Troy, as well as finishing an honorary M.A. in Lakota Leadership from the Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota and releasing another tremendous concept album, Badlands. All in all, Marty Stuart has done well for himself, and continues to do so, as with last year's stunning gospel recording, Soul's Chapel. Now, to chronicle that amazing life in song, comes this collection - it's not a lot of songs, considering all Marty's done (and with who), but fourteen quality tracks span all of Stuart's impressive career, from those beginnings all the way to 2003's duet with Merle Haggard, "Farmer's Blues," which opens the disc. Of course, fourteen tracks can't begin to really chronicle Marty Stuart's storied and much-awarded career, but it's a great place to start. Plus, it's got a really cool cover, one of those ones that makes me miss full-sized vinyl albums. The best thing of all, though, is that this is a disc that's just plain fun to listen to. Marty Stuart is a brilliant performer, and for all his awards and accolades, it astounds me he's never been named "Entertainer of the Year" (he's funny, too, as well as being one of the snappiest dressers in country music). So enjoy. I know I do.