music

Marty Stuart

Compadres: A Collection of Duets

Among his many other attributes, Marty Stuart is a great host. The duets on Compadres span genres and generations, but Marty proves himself a gracious and generous partner throughout. He bends his own style to find common ground with everyone from legendary bluesman B.B. King to young mountain-music upstarts Old Crow Medicine Show, and from soul veterans The Staple Singers to country luminaries like his own wife, Connie Smith. “Rawhide,” which features a teenage Marty with Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass in 1974, isn’t just a novelty— it’s a barn-burner that earns its spot here.

Unlike most such compilations, Compadres adds up to more than the sum of its parts. These aren’t record-label-engineered pairings, but meetings of like-minded artists whose musical philosophy and generosity of spirit mean more than their stylistic differences. Marty’s choice of duet partners and the warmth of his interactions with them offer unexpected insights into the parameters of his personality and the depth of his talent.

• July 31, 2007
• by Chris Neal