No Labels, Please : Marty Stuart Hears Nothing Discordant in Duet of Traditional and Commercial

He’s got a $50 haircut--and he plays a guitar once owned by Hank Williams. He calls himself a hillbilly--but he looks more like an underwear model. His new album features glossy, glamour-boy photography--yet he bemoans the plasticity of the modern Nashville establishment.

In fact Marty Stuart is a modern-day anomaly, a pretty-boy front man with real ability as a musician and a background of supporting country music’s forebears. He treads a thin line between past, present and future.

“I hate labels,” the singer-songwriter--who performs tonight at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park and Monday at the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana--said during a recent phone interview. “But if you put a gun to my head, yeah, I’m a traditionalist. I believe in the future of country music, but a future without roots is like a kite with no string. I believe in where we’ve come from, and there’s some lessons from there to be carried into the 21st Century.”

Proficient on guitar, bass and fiddle, he truly excels on the mandolin and considers himself a picker at heart. “I figure I’m a mandolin player first and foremost, and everything else I’ve accomplished is just a scam,” he said with a laugh.

A professional musician since age 13, Stuart, 35, has toured and played sessions with such legends as Lester Flatt, Doc Watson, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan, as well as with such relative neophytes as Travis Tritt, Randy Travis and Mark O’Connor and the New Nashville Cats.

One gig stands out in his memory:

“When I was teen-ager with Lester, we played a show at Michigan State. The bill was Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, Lester Flatt and the Eagles. I saw that show as a real benchmark. I remember saying to Lester, ‘This is what I want to do--play country music that has some rock ‘n roll in it, but comes from a traditional base.’ And Lester said, ‘Aw, that ain’t nothing that people will ever pay any attention to. It’ll never last.’ That’s what the old-timers thought.”

History, of course, went on to prove Flatt dead wrong, much to the chagrin of purists who lament the demise of traditional country music as a financially viable endeavor.

Though he has made overtures toward commercialism in his look and, to a somewhat lesser degree, in his sound, Stuart maintains a rougher, more authentic edge in his picking and instrumentation.

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A member of the once all-powerful Grand Ole Opry, he revels in his fraternity with such stars as Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl. All three, and countless others, loathed the term “hillbilly,” but Stuart sees it as a badge of honor.

“I make no apology about being a hillbilly,” said the product of rural Missouri. “There’s an era of country musicians--the guys that raised me--who despise the word because when they came to New York or wherever, they were treated like hayseed hillbillies. They had to fight for their dignity. But the word applies to me. People like Dwight (Yoakam) and Hank (Williams Jr.) and myself are from that particular division of country music, and I think it’s an honorable place to be.”

At the same time, Stuart refuses to belittle performers who campaign with equal pride in a more modern mode--the much-maligned Billy Ray Cyrus, for example.

“The guy can’t help it that he’s good-looking; he can’t help it that he had a hit record that any of us would die for. That’s not to be held against him,” Stuart said. “But a lot of those guys who go down to the mall, buy a cowboy hat and sing a song--enjoy them while they’re here, because they ain’t gonna be here long.”

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In any case, Stuart says country music today is a big tent that should be able to accommodate the divergent styles and age groups of its musicians.

“I think one of the biggest sins going on in Nashville right now is that they’re ignoring Ray Price, Little Jimmy Dickens, Grandpa Jones--all the people who invented the town. There’s enough money and enough pieces of the pie that everyone could be included. Country music will never have another moment like this, when you’ve got everyone from Bill Monroe to Billy Ray active. They’d better take advantage of it ‘cause it ain’t going to be that way too much longer.”

Meanwhile, Stuart looks toward the future and sees himself as a bridge that can help reconcile the old and new schools.

“There’s a line on Hank Williams’ plaque in the Country Music Hall of Fame that caught my eye a long time ago: ‘To broaden and expand.’ And that’s just what I love doing.”

* Marty Stuart sings tonight at Knott’s Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park (6 and 9 p.m. Shows included with park admission: $28.50 for adults, $18.50 for children under 11 before 4 p.m., $12.95 for all after 4 p.m. (714) 827-1776) and Monday night (and Oct. 3) at the Crazy Horse Steak House, 1580 Brookhollow, Santa Ana (7 and 10 p.m. $34.50. (714) 549-1512.