Marty Stuart The Pilgrim, A Wall To Wall Odyssey BMG
The Pilgrim album was originally released on the MCA label in 1999 and served as something of a renaissance for Stuart. It was not a career highpoint or chart toping contender in the terms that record companies might aspire too. Rather it is a rounded statement of creative roots inspired music that does not rely on the commercial aspirations of either the artist or record label. It is an album made for the simple reason of wishing to communicate, to tell a story and to make it a universal one. He wanted and needed to grow musically, to explore new pastures in a context that was both spiritual and musical.
This twentieth anniversary edition now comes with the original album and a host of additional tracks that were recorded at the same time and feature fellow seekers like Johnny Cash, George Jones, Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs, Josh Graves, Connie Smith, Pam Tillis and Emmylou Harris. Their presence alone should give you an idea of the respect that these artists had for Stuart. It is also a visual treat coming as it does packaged as a 100 page book that documents every aspect of the recording process in word and picture. There are photographs and notes on the instruments. reproductions of lyric notebooks, photographs by Jim Arndt from the cover photo session, alongside many other photographs from Stuart’s career and some more casual in studio snapshots. Also featuredare Stuart’s own reflections on the entire process and his own photography that covers the people and places that helped define the rich history of country music for what it was and should be. These sit alongside such sources as the work of O. Winston Link’s, a photographer who captured fantastic images of an era when steam trains were dominant and a mention of the great Native American portrait photographer Edward S. Curtis.
All of this makes for a rounded and rich accompaniment to the music which is essentially the backbone of this project. If you think of it as a kind of CD super booklet that every such album indeed needs to give it the context it requires for a major reassessment for those who didn’t appreciate its worth on its initial release. It also makes the enjoyment of the album all the more special as well as giving an insight into the mind and music of one of the undoubted greats of country music who has himself reached that status of icon in what has become something of a maligned and misplaced genre.
Review by Stephen Rapid
PS. As yet I haven’t seen a physical copy on sale. It is listed on Amazon for £40 sterling and €47. You can also purchase it from Marty Stuart website along with a vinyl and poster edition.