Marty Stuart's Sparkling Obsession

Mississippi's own Marty Stuart came home to visit last week and open a new exhibit in Tupelo. As MPB arts reporter Ron Brown tells us he left behind a sparkling part of America's musical heritage.

Whenever Marty Stuart steps on a stage, whether it’s with his band or as a solo act like recently in Tupelo, he’s joined by an unseen element he’s been following his entire life. He brings with him a loving echo of the past, like a certains song he delivered as a special gift to his Tupelo audience called "Tupelo County Jail."

Marty Stuart is a Grammy Award winning songwriter with plenty of his own hits but he didn’t write this song. That was Mel Tillis. And it was a big hit for Webb Pierce way in back in 1958 when country music was full of sparkle and twang.

For Marty Stuart classic country songs aren’t outdated. They shine just as brightly today as they did when they were new 50 or more years ago.

“I love traditional country music. Of all the music that’s come out of Mississippi you know what touched my heart the deepest was traditional country music.”

Marty Stuart reveres the classic country artists like Hank Williams who made timeless music, and he doesn’t think he’s alone. A lot of fans have been left out in the cold as country music embraces newer sounds and newer songs. But country fans are traditionalists known for being loyal and for Stuart, loyalty works both ways.

“There is a world of people out there that love traditional country music. There’s an audience for it. There’s old timers that have always loved it that got left in the cold and we’re bringing it back to ‘em.”

Singing the old songs is one way to evoke the stars and the spirit of the past, but Stuart had something else in mind. Something as bold and flashy as the rhinestone studded stage costumes they used to wear. Stuart has amassed a vast private collection of those stage costumes as well as personal affects from some of the legends of country, bluegrass, rockabilly and southern gospel. His collection has shown in Nashville and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. For the next few months it’ll be in Tupelo. Marty Stuart calls it Sparkle and Twang. He got the idea from the Hard Rock Café franchise which exhibits artifacts from Rock and Roll stars.

“And I thought that was really cool, but what it reminded me of that nobody was doing that in country music, outside the country music hall of fame. And I had just bought a train case at a thrift shop in Nashville that had belonged to Patsy Cline for $75. Those old Nudie costumes with rhinestones like Porter Wagoner wore I saw it as art. And culture. And they were getting thrown away sold, given away. That old sound, the old guard it was fading away. But I could not see breaching my history. And I saw culture in it. I saw American culture in it. I saw it as the sustaining force of country music, throughout the ages. And I think it’s proven me right.”

Stuart’s Sparkle and Twang collection has now grown into some 20 thousand exhibits. Glittering stage outfits, guitars and handwritten lyrics to some of country music’s most treasured songs are on display. Marty Stuart bought them, but he says they belong to fans.

“One of the things I kinda get a lump in my throat about, it started in my bedroom at my mom and daddies house in Philadelphia Mississippi. But the fact that we can bring it back home to Mississippi and set it down inside of the birthplace of America’s music is a real honor to me.”

Sparkle and Twang will be on display in Tupelo until then end of June, then it moves on to Meridian as one Mississippi boys’ love letter to the past. For MPB News, I’m Ron Brown