July 27, 2024
This afternoon Krissa texted us and wanted to know if we had tickets to see Marty Stuart at the Ozark Folk Center tonight. I remember Marty Stuart from my younger years of watching a lot of country music shows with my parents. Nancy had never heard of him. She and Chris were not going so she brought over two VIP tickets to the show for us. The VIP tickets gives you great close to stage seats and the opportunity to do a “meet and greet”. We never expected these kind of tickets.
Once we entered the theater, we realized that there were no bad seats. However, we were the second row back from center stage. Awesome seats! The show started with the Music Roots Ensemble. These are the children who get instruments and lessons through school. It’s a great program and allows the children an excellent opportunity to learn and it does not cost them anything. Proceeds from the concert will go toward this program as well as the “tip” bucket they sent around. For us it is a worthwhile program. The youth were amazing. I believe the ages ranged from 6 to 17?
Then it was time for Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives. Pictures and videos were not allowed to be taken. The performance was being recorded. Once he started playing and singing, Nancy had heard some of his music. He and the Fabulous Superlatives dress old country style. By that I mean the sequined outfits, ties, different colored shirts, large belt buckles. Old style country musician. It was awesome. The music was so great. There were 3 members of the Fabulous Superlatives. They were Cousin Charlie, Handsome Harry, and Chris Scruggs. Everyone, including Marty Stuart, played multiple instruments. There were no big drum kits, or large amplifiers. They sounded great though. Cousin Charlie played 2 or 3 different guitars including a 12 string. Handsome Harry mainly played a small drum he wore around his waist and played with what appeared to be metal brushes. He did pick up a guitar for one song. Then Chris Scruggs started with the upright bass but played a real mean guitar. They were on for about 2 hours straight. Through the show, Marty would kind of step to the background and each of the Superlatives would step up and take center stage. Toward the end of the show, the Superlatives left the stage and Marty told a story and sang a song about Mark Jones, a good friend of his he met at the Grand Ole Opry. Mark was the son of Nashville Legend, Grandpa Jones. After the tribute song, the Superlatives came back on stage and they did a couple more tunes and then did about 3 encores. Super show.
After the show the 15 VIPs were ushered to the back stage area. We waited in line for about 10 minutes. We saw Marty enter a room through a sided door. Nancy made comment that it seemed like this was a chore for him. Having never been a VIP before we did not know what to expect. We soon found out. You entered the room, shook hands with Marty and maybe said hi. Someone would take your phone and they would take a couple of pictures. You were then given a Swag Bag and an autographed poster and escorted out. The whole meet and greet was maybe 2 minutes. While it was kind of neat to meet Marty Stuart, I am so glad we did not pay that much money for that particular VIP experience. While waiting for the shuttle to take us to the parking lot, someone we knew that worked at the Folk Center handed us the set list. That’s the list of songs that Marty performed, including the “encore”.
