“I asked Johnny about that song when I was in his band, and he said the only thing he remembered about it was changing some words,” laughs Stuart. Listeners too can feel the warmth of those Santa Ana winds over the album’s 15 tracks, a collection of newly written originals, instrumentals and rare covers like the Benny Goodman-penned “Air Mail Special,” and “Lost on the Desert,” once recorded by Johnny Cash.

“This is a California record, and I knew that when I emerged from the studio at night, I wanted to see palm trees and breathe that desert air,” says Stuart.

Way Out West, with its atmospheric production, evokes those classics, as well as cowboy records like Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs and Cash’s The Fabulous Johnny Cash, one of the first albums Stuart ever owned. Much of the early Heartbreakers music was recorded at Campbell’s and that primal rock & roll energy is palpable throughout Way Out West, reinforced by Capitol’s own rock history: the Hollywood studio birthed iconic records like the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the country-rock of Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman. Studio, a gritty space with a vibe all its own. They recorded half of the album at Capitol Records and the rest at Campbell’s M.C. Way Out West is a love letter to that.”Īs such, the album could only be recorded there, and Stuart, with his longtime backing band the Fabulous Superlatives, decamped for California. “Everything that came out of California captivated my kid mind in Mississippi,” he says. Growing up in Philadelphia, Mississippi, Stuart was taken by the mystique of the Golden State: the culture, the movies and especially the music. Specifically the promised land of California. “It is that spirit world of the West that enchants me.” “If you go and sit by yourself in the middle of the Mojave Desert at sundown and you’re still the same person the next morning when the sun comes up, I’d be greatly surprised,” says Stuart. Opening with a Native American prayer, a nod to Stuart’s affinity for the indigenous people, particularly the Lakota, Way Out West transports the listener to the lonely but magical American West. Produced by Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers),the album is a cinematic tour-de-force, an exhilarating musical journey through the California desert that solidifies Stuart as a truly visionary artist. Way Out West, his 18th studio album, hits both of those marks. Carter and an assortment of Cash’s black boots among his vast collection of memorabilia.īut most importantly, Stuart continues to record and release keenly relevant music, records that honor country’s rich legacy while advancing it into the future. Including its literal shoes: Stuart counts the brogan of Carter Family patriarch A.P. He’s played alongside the masters, from Cash to Lester Flatt, who discovered him been a worldwide ambassador for Nashville, Bakersfield and points in between and safeguarded country’s most valuable traditions and physical artifacts. While he’s too gracious to admit it himself, the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and musician is living, breathing country-music history. With legends like George Jones, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard all passed on, country music purists often echo the question Jones himself asked: “Who’s going to fill their shoes?” The answer, in part, is Marty Stuart.

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