Today, the 5-time GRAMMY winner, Country Music Hall of Famer and AMA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Marty Stuart announced his new album, Altitude, will be released on May 19 via Snakefarm. The announcement of his first new album in more than 6 years finds Stuart on the heels of a string of professional and personal achievements in an already unprecedented career. Late last year, Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and he celebrated his 50th year in Nashville and 30th anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member. In December, Stuart and his wife Connie Smith kicked off the grand re-opening of the historic and recently renovated Ellis Theater in his hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi, which Stuart has been working to re-open for seven years as part of his Congress of Country Music.
Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives commemorated the announcement with the release of the album’s title track “Altitude” along with a visualizer for their previously released single “Country Star.” Altitude is now available for pre-order.
“I’ve been quoted as saying the most outlaw thing you can possibly do in Nashville, TN, these days is to play country music. It can be done,” Stuart explains. “On Altitude, there’s twin fiddles, steel guitar, and the legendary Pig Robbins playing piano on what turned out to be one of his last recording sessions. The song is a reminder to me, and to anyone else still interested, that there’s a few of us out here who still know how to make authentic country music. I have an absolute belief that there’s a world of people out there who still love it, as my wife Connie Smith says it’s the ‘cry of the heart,’ Harlan Howard said ‘it’s’ three chords and the truth’ – that’s country music.”
Recorded in Nashville with his longtime band The Fabulous Superlatives – Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson and Chris Scruggs – the collection finds Stuart picking up where he left off on 2017’s Way Out West, exploring a cosmic country landscape populated by dreamers and drifters, misfits and angels, honky-tonk heroes and lonesome lovers. Written primarily on the road, the collection was inspired in large part by Stuart’s 2018 tour supporting Byrds co-founders Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, who reunited for the 50th anniversary of their seminal Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album.
“I bought my first copy of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo for $2.99 at the discount bin in a shopping mall record store in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, and it became the blueprint for my musical life,” Stuart recalls. “Revisiting it on the road with Roger and Chris put me back under its spell all over again. I was writing songs in dressing rooms and soundchecks and on the bus, and then one day, I looked up and there was enough to make an album.”
Stuart and his band are set to embark on a coast-to-coast tour that kicks off on February 9 in Chattanooga, TN, with a performance at Stagecoach Music Festival on April 29. This summer, he will hit the road with Chris Stapleton for a run of dates. Tickets are on sale now, with more dates to be announced later this year.
“I’ve always loved songs that feel like old friends but still sound new and fresh,” says Stuart about Altitude. “The beautiful thing about country music is that the blueprint Jimmie Rodgers laid down—rambling, gambling, sin, redemption, Heaven, Hell—it’s all just as relevant now as it ever was. It’s the human condition, and if you’re honest about it and you’ve got a real band around you, you can make something that’s uniquely yours and stands the test of time.”
Altitude tracklist:
1) Lost Byrd Space Train (Scene 1)
2) Country Star
3) Sitting Alone
4) A Friend Of Mine
5) Space
6) Altitude
7) Vegas
8) The Sun Is Quietly Sleeping
9) Lost Byrd Space Train (Scene 2)
10) Night Riding
11) Tomahawk
12) Time To Dance
13) The Angels Came Down
14) Lost Byrd Space Train (Epilogue)
Tour Dates:
2/9 – Chattanooga, TN – The Walker Theatre
2/10 – Augusta, GA – Imperial Theatre
2/11 – Shelby, NC – Don Gibson Theatre
2/17 – Clearwater, FL – Bilheimer Capitol Theatre
2/18 – Ocala, FL – Reilly Arts Center
2/19 – Stuart, FL – Lyric Theatre
2/20 – Key West, FL – Key West Theatre
2/23 – Jacksonville, FL – Florida Theatre Jacksonville
2/24 – Decatur, AL – Princess Theater
3/4 – Hopkins, MN – Hopkins Center for the Arts
3/5 – Chicago, IL – Old Town School of Folks Music
3/10 – Fayetteville, AK – Starr Theater – Walton Arts Center
3/24 – St. Louis, MO – Sheldon Concert Hall
3/25 – Senatobia, MS – Northwest Mississippi Community College for the Performing Arts
4/6 – Vienna, VA – The Barns at Wolf Trap
4/7 – Vienna, VA – The Barns at Wolf Trap
4/14 – Easton, PA – State Theatre Center for the Arts
4/15 – Ridgefield, CT – Ridgefield Playhouse
4/16 – Wilmington, DE – Copeland Hall
4/27 – Tucson, AZ – Fox Tucson Theatre
4/28 – Scottsdale, AZ – Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts
4/29 – Indio, CA – Stagecoach Festival
5/4 – Lincolnton, GA – Little Roy & Lizzy Music Festival
5/13 – Greeneville, TN – Niswonger Performing Arts Center
6/2 – Shipshewana, IN – Blue Gate Performing Arts Center
6/15 – Spokane, WA – Spokane Arena #
6/16 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater #
6/22 – Des Moines, IA – Wells Fargo Arena #
6/23 – Wichita, KS – INTRUST Bank Arena #
7/6 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheater #
7/19 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center #
7/20 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre #
8/10 – Gilford, NH – Bank of NH Pavilion #
8/11 – Gilford, NH – Bank of NH Pavilion #
9/30 – Steelville, MO – Wildwood Springs Lodge
# – with Chris Stapleton
