Marty Stuart’s “Saturday Night / Sunday Morning”
I don’t know how Marty Stuart does it. He’s like Gandalf on the back of his white steed, galloping here and there and everywhere in his pursuit to save country music. He’s scouring the country to secure important country music artifacts for preservation. He’s opening a cultural center in his hometown. He’s starring in The Marty Stuart Show and touring constantly. And here he is releasing a double album through his Superlatone record label.
Saturday Night / Sunday Morning unfolds just like its title implies. The first album is the secular country music fare you’ve come used to hearing from Marty Stuart with his mainstay backing band of recent years The Fabulous Superlatives, where the telecasters are loud and twangy, and the style is honky tonk and traditional. Then the second album unfolds very much like you would expect if you’ve heard Marty Stuart and the Superlatives perform their version of rocking country Gospel and a cappella compositions with their captivating four-part harmonies. It’s Gospel, but it’s Marty Stuart Gospel. It’s electric, with a vitality and energy not always heard in the discipline.
Like his mentor Johnny Cash, as Marty Stuart has grown older, he’s evidenced an increasingly deeper appreciation for Gospel music. Most any Marty Stuart album is going to boast a Gospel song or two, but with this release he takes the time to make an entire album of religiously-inspired music. Marty actually released another Gospel album called The Gospel Music of Marty Stuart somewhat quietly in April that includes live performances of many recognizable Gospel songs regularly performed on The Marty Stuart Show. But Saturday Night / Sunday Morning is Stuart putting his personal stamp on Gospel, and making sure to serve both sides of his fan base by not just including Gospel songs exclusively.
If you think about it, this strategy is pretty smart. Unfortunately, some listeners are turned off when they hear an album is only going to include religious material. You combine two albums together, and you can lead right into it since folks are already listening. It’s like your mother giving you sugar with the medicine. Next thing you know, you’re appreciating the Gospel music just as much as Marty’s other stuff, if not more.
Saturday Night / Sunday Morning should not be considered a concept album. There’s no deep-seated story with recurring characters or themes referenced throughout like Marty’s landmark concept album The Pilgrim from 1999. The two albums are more just a style and approach delineation, though like all of Marty’s music, there are still important themes and messages to heed, hard lessons learned, harrowing stories, and personal awakenings to be had amongst these 23 new tracks.
Marty gives us a lot of music to crunch through in this release, and a lot of notable appearances. Included on Saturday Night / Sunday Morning beyond the Fabulous Superlatives is Hall of Famer Hargus “Pig” Robbins on piano, who makes appearances throughout the Saturday Night album. Both Hargus and and Willie Nelson’s long-time harmonica player Mickey Raphael pretty much carry the second song “Geraldine.” The great Mavis Staples makes an important appearance to begin the Sunday Morning portion of the release, lending her vocal talents to the classic “Uncloudy Day.” And Evelyn Hubbard also shows up on the Gospel album. Who is Evelyn Hubbard you ask? Well she’s a pastor at the Commerce Missionary Baptist Church in Robinsonville, Mississippi of course.
Saturday Night / Sunday Morning begins with Marty Stuart reviving the sound that has graced his records since enlisting the Superlatives as his backing band. Though people talk about the great guitar-slinging frontmen of country music today like Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, the combination of Marty Stuart and “Cousin” Kenny Vaughan makes for about the best Telecaster-based country music you can find these days, and based not just off of technique, but off of tone and taste. Since Saturday Night is chased by Gospel, Marty and the boys put the pedal down on the first album and rarely let off. Think of old school honky tonk country rock.
The middle of this album gets just a little bit sleepy. There’s a decent amount of covers on this record, and in stretches you feel like Marty is doing a little too much interpreting of old song styles than offering more original-sounding material like on recent albums. But there’s not a slouch anywhere on this track list either.
Sunday Morning continuously builds toward the end of the album, to where the brilliant four part harmonies of Marty, “Cousin” Kenny, “Handsome” Harry Stinson, and “Apostle” Paul Martin unfold into some brilliant, and spine-tingling works of inspirational music. For years the foursome has been performing one of the best renditions of “Angels Rock Me To Sleep” ever bestowed to human ears, and we finally get a recorded version of this masterpiece. And the album resolves in the mostly-a cappella original “Heaven” that is so haunting and touching, it should be considered one of the essential recordings of Marty Stuart’s entire career.
Once again Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives prove they are at the core of keeping the traditions of country music alive, while doing so in a manner that is energetic, inviting, informed, and broad-based where people of all stripes—the Saturday night and Sunday morning people—can come together and enjoy the gift of good country music together.
1 3/4 of 2 Guns Up.
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October 1, 2014 @ 10:56 am
Bought this last night, listening on the way home today, VERY happy to read this before I’ve heard it.
As an atheist, I actually very much enjoy good gospel music. It’s more about the passion and sincerity of the performance for me, especially since I’m secure in my (non) beliefs. Used to take my daughters to Gospel Fest in Chicago every year to see some of the best choirs in the country.
But I’m curious about one thing:
I’m looking for the part of the review that would warrant 1/4 gun demerit from a perfect score. Yes, I saw the graph about “sleepy” and “interpreting of old styles”, but the latter sounds like a feature to me, not a bug. I’d rather hear those old styles “interpreted” than hear 90% of what passes for original these days.
But again, you’ve heard it and I haven’t.
Thanks!
October 1, 2014 @ 11:09 am
I hate to be expounding on negative sentiments about an album I’m mostly positive about, but I did feel like the material was just stretched out a little too much with this record, like if it had been condensed down by a few tracks it would have been better. Which tracks? I can’t really say because I don’t think there’s any “bad” songs here by any stretch. Interpretation is not a bad thing in itself, but during the middle portion of this album, I just didn’t hear to one or two anchor songs that gave it the original spice to pull it through, in my opinion. But it’s a very solid record and I think I gave it a solid grade overall. “Heaven” is a Song of the Year candidate in my opinion.
October 1, 2014 @ 11:08 am
He’s got such a good run of albums going. Nothing but respect from me as a listener and musician.
Also doesn’t Tommy Emmanuel make an appearance in there somewhere?
October 1, 2014 @ 11:31 am
Yes, he plays guitar on “Streamline” and does stuff with an acoustic guitar I didn’t know was humanly possible.
October 1, 2014 @ 11:54 am
Streamline
October 1, 2014 @ 1:57 pm
Thank you for finally reviewing an album that I might buy.
October 1, 2014 @ 8:04 pm
“Angles Rock Me to Sleep”? Is that a song about geometry being boring?
October 1, 2014 @ 9:56 pm
making sure to serve both sides of his fan base by not just including Gospel songs exclusively.
But of course, his fan base loves both sides, so it’s not like there’s any tension. I don’t expect the bro-country fangirls to appreciate gospel, but I sure as hell expect a Marty Stuart (or Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard…) fan to appreciate gospel. There would be no country music with out, or rock ‘n’ roll for that matter.
October 2, 2014 @ 4:14 am
Interestingly, Counting Crows released a very similarly conceptualized album several years ago. It was one of their better releases in my humble opin, and even had a more than similar title…
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Nights_and_Sunday_Mornings
No insinuation here, just interesting.
October 2, 2014 @ 8:01 am
But this album is not “conceptualized.” Marty didn’t use the “Saturday Night / Sunday Morning” title because he believed it hadn’t been done before. He used it because it had been done before and because it is a common thematic thread throughout country music and Southern American culture at large. Before Counting Crows did it, Ralph Stanley released a double album called “Saturday Night / Sunday Morning” in 1992. With Marty’s relationship with Ralph, it’s a safe bet Marty knew about it. David Olney also has a song called “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.”
The only way it is interesting is if you’re insinuating something.
October 2, 2014 @ 8:16 am
Having not heard the record, I’ve got nothing more than your review, and specifically the second paragraph, to go on when I said the record was conceptualized. The rockin half/chill half concept was used on the aforementioned Counting Crows record, and, as you mentioned (and admittedly unbeknownst to me), in the Ralph Stanley record. Nowhere in my comment did I make mention of Marty claiming it was an original idea, nor did I lament him for doing so. In fact, your comment underlines the point I was making.
It is interesting, I wasn’t insinuating anything, and I’ll just politely disagree with your last sentence.
October 2, 2014 @ 8:27 am
Nowhere in the 2nd paragraph does it say the album is conceptualized or that it is a concept album. Furthermore, the 5th paragraph clearly states:
“Saturday Night / Sunday Morning should not be considered a concept album. There”™s no deep-seated story with recurring characters or themes referenced throughout like Marty”™s landmark concept album The Pilgrim from 1999. The two albums are more just a style and approach delineation, though like all of Marty”™s music, there are still important themes and messages to heed, hard lessons learned, harrowing stories, and personal awakenings to be had amongst these 23 new tracks.”
October 2, 2014 @ 6:18 am
Oh ya……………….breath of fresh air this morning………wish I’d listened to this instead of the water song yesterday………….thanks Triggerman.
October 2, 2014 @ 8:24 am
Don’t know if folks read the SCM Headlines at the top of the home page, but one currently takes you to this page which is an absolutely must read about Marty Stuart. The comments are great too.
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/01/352991803/marty-stuart-country-musics-historian-goes-to-church?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nprmusic&utm_term=music&utm_content=202401
October 2, 2014 @ 1:55 pm
I’ve been waiting for this album to come out! I’ve been streaming it from the NY Times and love it, as I like his other albums. My husband and I saw him in NY recently and he did not disappoint. He played a few cuts from the album including “Angels Rock Me to Sleep”. You could have heard a pin drop in the place. A heads up to all…..CBS Sunday Morning was there taping for a piece to run later sometime in the near future so watch the paper or Marty’s FB feed for more info. Marty and his band will be performing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of their ongoing concert series in connection to the exhibit of The History of the Martin Guitar this coming Monday (10/6) with Steve Miller, can’t wait to see him there!!
October 5, 2014 @ 12:49 pm
Can’t wait to see him at the end of Oct. One the best there is of the new “old school”.
So pleased the album is is a keeper.
October 6, 2014 @ 7:20 am
Love this album, it is an absolute pleasure to listen to from front to back.