LARGE PRINT PROGRAM LINcOLN cENTER fOR ThE PERfORMING ARTs fREDERIcK P. ROsE hALL hOME Of JAZZ AT LINcOLN cENTER ThE ALLEN ROOM Lincoln Center presents American songbook January 28 –June 12, 2014 Sponsored by Prudential Investment Management Wednesday Evening, February 19, 2014, at 8:30 Marty stuart & connie smith Kenny Vaughan, Guitar Paul Martin, Bass and Vocals harry stinson, Drums and Vocals Gary carter, Steel Guitar This evening’s program is approximately 75 minutes long and will be performed without intermission. PLEAsE TuRN PAGEs quIETLy (program continued) 2 Major support for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook is provided by Fisher Brothers, In Memory of Richard L. Fisher; and Amy & Joseph Perella. Wine generously donated by William Hill Estate Winery, Official Wine of Lincoln Center. This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center. Please make certain your cellular phone, pager, or watch alarm is switched off. Additional support for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, The Shubert Foundation, Jill and Irwin Cohen, The G & A Foundation, Inc., Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center. Endowment support is provided by Bank of America. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts. Artist catering is provided by Zabar’s and Zabars.com. MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center, Inc. 3 Movado is an Official Sponsor of Lincoln Center, Inc. United Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln Center. WABC-TV is the Official Broadcast Partner of Lincoln Center, Inc. William Hill Estate Winery is the Official Wine of Lincoln Center. Lincoln center’s Large Print and Braille programs are made possible thanks to a generous endowment established by frederick P. Rose, Daniel Rose, and Elihu Rose in honor of their mother, Belle B. Rose. upcoming American songbook Events in The Allen Room: Thursday Evening, February 20, at 7:30 and 9:30 Portraits of Joni: Jessica Molaskey sings Joni Mitchell Friday Evening, February 21, at 8:30 Aoife O’Donovan Saturday Evening, February 22, at 8:30 Ann harada Wednesday Evening, March 5, at 8:30 Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade history of Popular Music: The 1920s 4 Thursday Evening, March 6, at 8:30 Deer Tick (limited availability) Friday Evening, March 7, at 7:30 and 9:30 Jim caruso’s cast Party Goes to the Movies with Billy stritch , featuring Marilyn Maye, Jane Monheit, christina Bianco, & Jeffry Denman Saturday Evening, March 8, at 8:30 Norm Lewis (limited availability) The Allen Room is located in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall. For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit AmericanSongbook.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 or visit AmericanSongbook.org for complete program information. Join the conversation: #LCSongbook We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. 5 In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. country Music Royalty by Laura Cantrell Independently, Marty Stuart and Connie Smith are two of the most important artists in country music today. Smith is a Country Music Hall of Fame member with a 40-plus year career, and Stuart has for over 30 years made his mark as an instrumentalist, country hit maker, and chronicler of country music traditions. Together, Stuart and Smith share several parallels: both made their impact on commercial country music with mainstream successes, Smith in the 1960s and ’70s and Stuart in the 1990s; and both followed their own muses beyond their initial period of commercial success, building significant bodies of work exploring their deep roots in the traditions of country and gospel music. In addition to sharing musical talent deeply rooted in American country music history and traditions, they’ve sustained a long marriage based on faith and mutual musical respect. Connie Smith was raised in a music-loving family of 14 step-, half-, and whole-siblings in rural Ohio. While recuperating from an accident as a teenager, she was given a guitar, and she later began performing in local talent contests. Despite her youth, 6 Smith’s voice had natural depth and feeling, carrying weight and knowledge beyond her years. Country artist and songwriter Bill Anderson spotted her ability to carry a song at a local country music show and invited her to come to Nashville and sing demos of songs he’d written for other artists. That trip led to her eventual signing with RCA records by legendary producer Chet Atkins. Her first single, “Once a Day,” written by Anderson, was the first debut single for a female artist to reach the No. 1 spot in Billboard magazine, and for many years held the record for being the longest-running No. 1 single by a female artist in country music. Smith was a consistent hit maker in the ’60s and early ’70s; splitting her time between recording, performing at the Grand Ole Opry, and traveling to one-night performances across the U.S. on the package tours of the day. On one such show at a Choctaw reservation in Mississippi in the ’70s, Smith met a precocious young mandolin picker and country music aficionado, Marty Stuart, then 12 years old. That night, Stuart asked his parents to take a photo of himself with Smith; on his way home, he told his mother he would marry Connie Smith “someday.” While Smith’s career slowed in the late ’70s as she raised her family of five children, Stuart’s was just beginning. As a 14-year- old, he impressed bluegrass mandolinist Roland White and was invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry with White and Lester Flatt, of the seminal bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs. Despite his youth, Stuart’s parents allowed him to apprentice with Flatt and White, and Stuart’s career as a professional musician began. 7 After Flatt’s death in 1979, Stuart played with artists like Vassar Clements and Doc Watson, eventually joining Johnny Cash’s touring band. In the late 1980s, Stuart released his first albums as a mainstream country artist, fusing his love and knowledge of old-school country veins like honky tonk, rockabilly, and bluegrass with a contemporary sensibility and songwriting style. His successes in that era are now classics of the neo-traditionalist style with songs like “Tempted,” “Honky Ton kin’s What I Do Best,” “The Whiskey Ain’t Working,” and “This One’s Gonna Hurt You,” the latter two from his memorable collaboration with Travis Tritt. My own appreciation for the depth of Marty Stuart’s knowledge and commitment to country music came, ironically, at a funeral. Hundreds of people were gathered to celebrate the life of Country Music Hall of Famer Hank Snow at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Amid the heartfelt tributes and homilies, Stuart’s graceful eulogy quoting Woody Guthrie stood out—and a song tribute played on a guitar passed from Jimmie Rodgers’s family to Snow and then to Stuart was an elegant demonstration of the lineage of artistic influence that connected all the artists in the room. Stuart’s work since the late 1990s has evolved with albums dedicated to Native American experience, farmers, traditional gospel, and the bluegrass of his youth. Along with his excellent band, the Fabulous Superlatives, Stuart returns in his live show to the fast-paced “hillbilly rock” of his early career, and can be seen regularly on the both retro and cool Marty Stuart Show country music variety program on the RFD cable network. 8 In his 2012 album, Nashville Vol. 1: Tear the Woodpile Down , Stuart makes it clear that country music is what he does best. In the late 1990s, Stuart produced and co-wrote an album with Smith simply titled Connie Smith . That effort led to a more personal collaboration, as Smith and Stuart married and have worked together frequently since. Smith’s 2011 album, Long Line of Heartaches , is their most recent joint effort; recorded at Nashville’s historic Studio B, it is a great example of country music craft at its finest. Though they have plenty of import as individuals, together Smith and Stuart bring an urgency to the joyful creation of country music, eliciting the riches of our culture through song. Laura Cantrell is a country singer born in Nashville and based in Jackson Heights, New York, with a new album called No Way There from Here. —Copyright © 2014 by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. Meet the Artists Marty stuart Marty Stuart is a five-time Grammy winner, platinum recording artist, Grand Ole Opry star, country music archivist, Southern culture historian, photographer, musician, songwriter, television show host, charismatic force of nature, and country music fan. 9 Since starting out singing gospel as a child, Mr. Stuart, 54, has spent over four decades celebrating American roots music with a missionary’s zeal. His teenage years on tour with bluegrass legend Lester Flatt in the ’70s were followed by six years in Johnny Cash’s band during the ’80s and a chart-topping tenure as a solo artist in the ’90s. The turn of the century saw Mr. Stuart looking inward to make deeply felt records paying homage to his love of vintage gospel, his Native American passions, and as always, his core—foot- stompin’, tail-shakin’, honky tonkin’, rockin’ hillbilly music.