Marty Stuart just smokin' the mandolin, age 14 with Lester Flatt

[John Garcia]

I did not know he was such a virtuoso at such a young age....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5k2TSyvUa4

Enjoy

[roysboy]

WOW...that is just blow-yer-socks-off GOOD...I can hardly believe what I just saw . Thanks for posting .....

[tree]

First thing that struck me, his picking is all from the wrist, no elbow. Second thing, man is he relaxed. Third thing, check out those threads. Nice!

[dusty miller]

That was good stuff. He doesn't seem to play his mandolin much anymore or at least the couple times I watched his show, just plays the Telecaster. Saw him on a Hee Haw re-run when he was younger and like the above video and it was also really good.

[John Garcia]

I noticed the plays from the wrist, also. Great technique. I read in his biography that Lester Flatt heard him jamming with one of the boys in his band and asked him to leave his home and come play with him in Nashville. Marty was 13.

[Caleb]

I wonder if that's the same mandolin he still plays today, the old Gibson that's all beat up and worn?

Side note: I love watching him play acoustic guitar most of all.

[John Garcia]

I saw his show recently where he played mandolin. The mandolin appears all scratched up, but I understand that he has other musicians scratch their names on it.....

[John Rosett]

He was only 13, but he'd already been playing for 20 years...

[AlanN]

I always dug Marty's mandolin styling back then. Not so all, however. I remember talking with Barry Mitterhoff in the studio one time, he asked me who my influences were. Amongst all the usual suspects, I also mentioned Marty. Barry was not impressed.

This 1978 LP on RidgeRunner is cool, has its moments. He picks Rawhide on it, with many of those same licks in the video above.

[Timbofood]

HOT, HOT,HOT!
Looks like the Randy Wood he's had forever not a Gibson.
Could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time.

[AlanN]

Back in my formative years, I taped bg radio shows onto cassette, have loads that I really need to go through and re-visit. One thing was part of a live Lester Flatt & Nashville Grass show, with Kenny I. and Marty. They do Cripple Creek, Till The End Of The World Rolls Round, etc. On Cripple Creek, they do the thing where they start real slow...Goin, Goin, Gooooonnnnne. Then the banjo kicks in, F-A-S-T. Marty is up next and just slays it. Clean, fast, precise, great. I studied that there break to no end.

Does anyone know which recording, album this was? This was in 1979, 1980 or so, pre-CD.

[Bernie Daniel]

HOT, HOT,HOT!
Looks like the Randy Wood he's had forever not a Gibson.
Could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time.

Marty is the greatest - -a fine spokesman for traditional country music and a great picker of anything with strings.

Yes his main stage mando is a copy -- I also was under the belief that Randy Wood made it for him. Marty kept it in pristine condition for many years until Johnny Cash one day carved "JC" under a cross on it one day. He said that it stood for Jesus Christ not Johnny Cash

But certainly the "man in black" was a major jerk that day.

But the two remained close friends until the end -- I guess they had to as Cash became Marty's father-in-lw for a while!!

Marty took as set of memorable photos of Johnny during the last four days of his life.

But didn't I once read that Connie Smith bought Marty a Loar? Maybe I am thinking Amy Grant and Vince Gill?

[journeybear]

I don't know who this kid is, but if he sticks with it, I bet he'll amount to something someday.



Marty's interview on the Tavis Smiley Show will be broadcast Tuesday or Wednesday, on PBS. Probably no playing. Check your local listings.

[Timbofood]

Aw, JB... He will probably just go country and get some BIG hair!

[ralph johansson]

Back in my formative years, I taped bg radio shows onto cassette, have loads that I really need to go through and re-visit. One thing was part of a live Lester Flatt & Nashville Grass show, with Kenny I. and Marty. They do Cripple Creek, Till The End Of The World Rolls Round, etc. On Cripple Creek, they do the thing where they start real slow...Goin, Goin, Gooooonnnnne. Then the banjo kicks in, F-A-S-T. Marty is up next and just slays it. Clean, fast, precise, great. I studied that there break to no end.

Does anyone know which recording, album this was? This was in 1979, 1980 or so, pre-CD.

Fast, clean, yet unhurried. But I find myself asking, where's the rest of the band?

That version of Cripple Creek comes from the Osborne Brothers. The Country Gentlemen did a wonderful parody, imitating a record played at half speed, and then being cranked up to full speed. I heard them do this in DC in 1969 when Duffey sat in for Gaudreau (absent on military assignment), a few months after he left the group.

[DataNick]

HOT, HOT,HOT!
Looks like the Randy Wood he's had forever not a Gibson.
Could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time.

You're close Tim as the builder was by accounts influenced probably indirectly by Randy Wood.

Marty Stuart's mandolin is a Chris Warner Loar copy that he got for $650 in 72' or 73'.
Chris himself is a Cafe member and verified it on post #73 of this great thread on Marty http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...art-s-F5/page3

Great reading there!

[Cheryl Watson]

Marty is such a talented musician. Thanks for sharing that video. Years ago, the big hair and the fancy suits kind of made me look on him as mostly show, but when I grew up, I realized that there was plenty of talent there to back it up!

[Jeff Mando]

Banjo is louder than the mandolin. Or at least the microphone is.....

[ralph johansson]

Stuart has a knack for finding the stuff that makes an acoustic instrument sound good.
His solo here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NcCgsAMxhs
is incredibly soulful

[Bernie Daniel]

Your close Tim as the builder was by accounts influenced probably indirectly by Randy Wood.

Marty Stuart's mandolin is a Chris Warner Loar copy that he got for $650 in 72' or 73'.
Chris himself is a Cafe member and verified it on post #73 of this great thread on Marty http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...art-s-F5/page3

Great reading there!

You're absolutely right and I knew that too -- bit of brain fade in the morning I guess. Apologies to Mr. Warner!

[tree]

Stuart has a knack for finding the stuff that makes an acoustic instrument sound good.
His solo here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NcCgsAMxhs
is incredibly soulful

Yes it is . . . but what happened to Mr. Bill's mic while Marty was picking that soulful break? I was impressed with how he squatted to continue playing into it for so long! Couldn't have been easy, considering his age. That was bizarre!

[Timbofood]

I think there are some other shots of him doing that, Bill likes some show that's for sure! I remember that thread, and totally forgotten the Chris Warner connection, I think I am developing Swiss cheese memory!

[journeybear]

That's a matter a mandolin can slice right through for you. Or is that mandoline?

[Bernie Daniel]

Yes it is . . . but what happened to Mr. Bill's mic while Marty was picking that soulful break? I was impressed with how he squatted to continue playing into it for so long! Couldn't have been easy, considering his age. That was bizarre!

I've heard Monroe did that low mic thing on more than one occasion to show that he could "get down" with his music.

[Timbofood]

Aah, show business!