In April of 2013, Marty Stuart and his ace band, the Fabulous Superlatives played the Brauntex Theatre in New Braunfels for the first time. Even though the show was on a Wednesday night, it was a huge success and the fans loved Marty. He loved performing at the theatre and said he would love to return, so he is, on Saturday night September 20. Local New Braunfels singer Tracie Lynn will open the show with an acoustic set at 7:30pm. Marty has a new 2-CD set coming out on Tuesday, Sept 30th and will hopefully have copies for sale at the show. It’s titled ‘Saturday Night, Sunday Morning’ and will feature up-tempo rockers on one CD and gospel tunes on the other. I had the pleasure of spending time with Marty at his 2013 show plus talking with him on the phone prior to his upcoming show this month. Tickets are on-sale at www.brauntex.org. Here’s what we talked about:

 

STEAM: Marty, first of all, thanks for playing at our theatre, it’s a pleasure to have you and the band here at the Brauntex.

 

MS: Hey, no problem, thanks for having us. We love playing these old theaters. The audiences are fun, they get in to the show and we feed off of that. We play a lot of outdoor shows but there’s something about these old buildings that makes the shows special.

 

STEAM: Years ago you bought Roy Orbison’s house. When Johnny Cash passed away, did you ever consider buying his house?

 

MS: (Laughs) Well, I had already bought Roy’s house which was next door to Johnny and June. But, no, not really, it was a big house on the lake and was worth a lot of money.

 

STEAM: Your band is incredible; you guys seem to know exactly what each other are doing on stage.

 

MS: I’m a very lucky guy. I married my favorite singer (Connie Smith) and have the best band in town. They are all amazing players. We can play anything from country to rockabilly to bluegrass to gospel.

 

STEAM: With so many songs to choose from, how do you pick the set list?

 

MS: That can be tough, we try to do some new songs if we have a new album out, but we know the fans want to hear the hits. So, yes, set lists can be tough. Fortunately I do have a lot of songs to pick from.

 

STEAM: You started out in country music so young, but you toured with some legendary figures, like Flatt & Scruggs and later Johnny Cash. Did that influence your path of still doing a lot of traditional country music?

 

MS: Probably so, when you get to perform with people like that, you have such a love for their music. I’ve always had a deep appreciation for traditional country music. Even when I started my solo career and played more modern stuff, I still had that rockabilly sound and did classic country songs in my shows.

 

STEAM: Will you and Travis Tritt ever do another album or tour together?

 

MS: Oh yeah, I love Travis, I’m sure we will do something together when we can fit it in our schedules.

 

STEAM: You have a couple of great books featuring photographs you’ve taken during your career. How did you get into photography?

 

MS: When I first started in the music business, I was just so excited to be on tour with these legendary artists. I would take pictures just to have a record of all the fun stuff I was experiencing. One day I realized that I had some really cool shots of people. It just grew from that. Now it’s definitely a labor of love and the fans seem to like them.

 

STEAM: With your TV show on the RFD Network, touring and recording, how do you balance it all out?

 

MS: You know, I’m just a hillbilly guitar picker. I’ve been extremely blessed in my life. I get to play music for a living. Touring can sometimes be tough, but once we get on-stage and start that first song, it’s all good.

 

STEAM: Thank you again for talking to me and for playing at the Brauntex Theatre. I’ll see you on September 20th.

 

MS: Yes sir, I love Texas and that theatre is a great room. New Braunfels is such a fun town; we look forward to playing there.