Superlatives find a spark
How important can one musician be to a band?
That’s the question Marty Stuart had to address when bassist Paul Martin decided in 2014 to focus on his family band, the Martin Family Circus. Stuart, who has always maintained his band to be more than deserving of the name the Fabulous Superlatives, added Chris Scruggs — grandson of bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs — to the lineup and is thrilled with the results.
“What Chris has done is bring an entirely different batch of energy, fresh energy, to us,” said Stuart in a recent interview.
“The apostle Paul rolled off to develop his family band, the Martin Family Circus — they’re wonderful; watch out for them. Kenny (Vaughan), Harry (Stinson) and I were trying to figure out how we’d replace Paul, and Chris Scruggs came out of nowhere and said, ‘Well, how about me?’ And we went, ‘Yes, how about you?’
“We took the better part of last year to get the show up and running and get all the songs smoothed out. He’s a remarkable person and a remarkable musician — he just brought a whole fresh spark to the Superlatives, and it’s wonderful to be a part of it every single night. It is a different dynamic, but I can’t explain it other than to say it’s a fresh spark.”
So is the band still worthy of the Fabulous Superlatives moniker?
“This is the truth — probably more so than ever,” said Stuart.
Now that Scruggs has been brought up to speed, Stuart has been going full bore.
His touring schedule has been keeping Stuart busy, along with recording not one, but two, new albums.
“We’ve got two new records we’re almost done with,” explained Stuart. “One is called Way Out West. It’s kind of a psychedelic trip through the west coast country music world out in California.
“The other one is a hillbilly surf band record that is yet untitled, but we’ve cut about 15 tracks for that one.”
Stuart agrees that the themes of the albums are out of the ordinary.
“That might be crazy, but let’s try it. The beautiful part of the Superlatives is no matter what gets dreamt up around here, the band can rise to the occasion and back it up,” said Stuart. “That’s a true luxury. “The Superlatives, from the first day this band started, the first rehearsal forward, this band has never not worked, has never not done interesting projects, has never not been a wonderful organization to be a part of.
“That’s just how the Superlatives system was set up.
“At the end of the day, it’s truly about good music, and that’s a wonderful thing to be a part of.”