So maybe the world wasn't quite ready when Stuart made his major label debut on CBS in 1986.
Produced his own first album, Busy Bee Cafe on Sugar Hill in 1982, which featured a "who's who" cast of supporting musicians, artists like Stuart's ex-father-in-law Johnny Cash, Doc and Merle Watson, and Jerry Douglas. I mean, what a portfolio this guy has! Joined Lester Flatt's band at age 13, then graduated to touring and recording with Johnny Cash a few years later. And I'm also thinking of his ex-brother-in-law, Marty Stuart, a creative dynamo a singer/songwriter/mandolinist - guitarist/producer par excellence, not to mention a fine journalist and photographer whose work has been in these pages. I'm thinking of Rodney Crowell, whose prodigious talents and unlooked-for success as a songwriter and producer got in the way of his solo recording career for years. It is ironic that in the country music field, as in other professions, there are always a select few who seem to be held back, not by their lack of talent, but by their abundance of it-artists who are capable of growing in so many directions at once that the question of focus can become a difficult one. Pulsating with raw, rootsy adrenaline, the mood is slick but never overly polished, with Marty balancing anxiously between rock and country-and, possibly, on the edge of major stardom. He then saddles up Texas rocker Joe Ely's "Me And Billy The Kid" and an old Merle Kilgore/Tillman Franks tune, "The Wild One," making each one sound as though it were written just for him. He also gives a rousing once-over-and renewed musical life-to "Cry, Cry, Cry," one of Johnny Cash's first hits. He especially shines on such tracks as "Don't Leave Her Lonely Too Long," "The Coal Mine Blues," and "Easy To Love )Hard To Hold)," all of which he co-wrote. Marty is a capable vocalist and a dynamite guitar and mandolin picker with a load of young-buck enthusiasm.
Hillbilly Rock finds Marty now defining his own space, drawing respectfully from his rich musical heritage but at the same time restlessly revving his engines. Best cuts: "Cry, Cry, Cry," "When The Sun Goes Down," "Since I Don't Have You."Īs somewhat of a musical child prodigy, Marty Stuart quickly earned his stripes-first as a teenage member of legendary bluegrass titan Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass band and later as a sideman for Johnny Cash. Stuart sings well and his vocals are buoyed immensely by first-rate picking. This album is Stuart's best album to date, even though some of the cuts are formulaic rockabilly at its ho-hummiest.
While this release displays more of Stuart's own songwriting skills, it also displays how deeply involved he is with the music he plays. "Cry, Cry, Cry," a Johnny Cash hit, is made new again. "Western Girls," a favorite of the numerous cowgirls who follow his career, and the Merle Kilgore-Tillman Franks tune "The Wild One" all demonstrate how effective Marty Stuart is. Opening with the title cut, an infectious romp that demands your attention, and ending on a high note with a love song, "Since I Don't Have You," crafted by Stuart and another tragically overlooked supernova, Mark Collie, this is one heck of an album. On par with Dwight Yoakam's debut, Hillbilly Rock sets the tone for a whole new faction of neo-traditionalists.
With a new groove that runs just left of center, while still retaining a classic country & western-bluegrass flair, Hillbilly Rock is a wild ride to what surely must be honky tonk heaven. Hillbilly Rock is the epitome of what the adult Marty Stuart is all about.
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