Product Review

Marty Stuart can be best described as a child prodigy who fulfilled his dream. Having taught himself to play mandolin and guitar in his early teens, he took his fixation with country music to the next level by becoming a member of Lester Flatt s touring band. Not bad for a very young man from Philadelphia, Mississippi.

His recording career really took off in the early 90s when he was signed to MCA Records Nashville, the label for which the contents of this Icon package were recorded. That success was due to a combination of things: his remarkable playing talent, his traditionalist style of country music, and maybe those flashy Nudie outfits helped a little. Oh, there may have also been his (first) marriage into country royalty by way of Johnny Cash's daughter Cindy. But more importantly there are those hit records that everyone recalls.

Hillbilly Rock led the charge and became his first top-10 hit landing at No. 8. Then there was the No. 5 Tempted and another top-10 with Burn Me Down. But it didn't stop there. Stuart collaborated, toured and recorded for the label for most of that decade.

A Grand Ole Opry member since 1993, Marty Stuart is a skilled musical craftsman and an accomplished archivist of music memorabilia and photography, and a welcome addition to the Icon series.