One of those times was in the same old white van that I talked about in my Memories and Practical Jokes post. After a Friday night at the Opry, we ended up at Marty’s apartment.  We spent the entire night visiting and picking. Before long, we realized Saturday Morning had rolled around.  We decided to go downtown for an early lunch.  We were both working the Opry again that night.  Marty was working with Lester Flatt at that time and I was doing a Kellogg Cereal Commercial with the Willis Brothers.

We decided to go to Elliston Place in Nashville to have lunch, where many of the entertainers still hang out today.  After leaving Elliston Place and heading down Church Street, we got caught up in a long line of traffic.  To save time, I decided we needed to find a different route, so we turned off Church Street, into what ended up being an alley that was barely wide enough for the van.  I saw a man up ahead, dressed in a nice black suit, motioning for us to follow him.  Marty and I thought it was really nice of him to be directing traffic, and dressed so well at that!  We followed his directions, and turned right.  Very soon we noticed the car in front of us wasn’t just any car.  About that same time, we noticed the markers and flags on the side of the alley.

By the time we realized we were heading up a funeral possession, following the Hearse, it was far too late to get out of the mess we were in.  We could only hope they thought we were the flower delivery Van as we continued on through.  It was a sobering moment.

Mark Jones, early years at the Grand Ole Opry

Marty Stuart, early years in Entertainment

Marty Stuart
Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions
Release date: August 24, 2010

(Nashville, Tenn.–May 11, 2010) GRAMMY-winner and American music icon Marty Stuart is set to release a traditional country album GHOST TRAIN: THE STUDIO B SESSIONS on August 24, 2010. With his 14th studio album, Stuart steadily continues to lead the charge in preserving the roots, culture and history of traditional country music.

Check out Marty’s Website

“What inspires me now, is traditional country music,” says Stuart. “It’s the music I most cherish, the culture in which I was raised. It’s the bedrock upon which the empire of country music is built, the empowering force that provides this genre with lasting credibility. It’s beyond trends and it’s timeless. With all that being said, I found traditional country music to be on the verge of extinction. It’s too precious to let slip away. I wanted to attempt to write a new chapter.”

Pre- Order to recieve a signed copy of Ghost Train

That new chapter is GHOST TRAIN: THE STUDIO B SESSIONS which includes such unmitigated country staples as the male-female duet (the gorgeous, heartfelt “I Run to You,” written and sung with Connie Smith), the chugging, bluesy—and spooky— fellow Mississippian Jimmie Rodgers-like train song “Ghost Train Four-Oh-Ten,” steel guitar driven, hardcore heartbreak ballads such as “A World Without You,” and “Drifting Apart,” and a no-flinching directness is front and center in the premiere of “Hangman,” a pointed, harrowing tale of an executioner’s job and life that Stuart co-wrote with Johnny Cash just four days before the Man in Black passed away.

As the album title denotes, GHOST TRAIN: THE STUDIO B SESSIONS was recorded in the legendary RCA Studio B in Nashville, where Stuart participated in his first-ever recording session at the age of 13 playing mandolin in Lester Flatt’s band.

Listen to 3 full songs from Ghost Train at NO COST
and view the album introduction video by Marty

“Studio B has a profound pedigree; it’s where so much of American music’s legacy was forged, certainly country music’s,” says Stuart. “And sonically, this is a room that welcomes music. It seemed to me that in order to authentically stage a brand new traditional country music record we should bring it back to the scene of the crime.”

GHOST TRAIN: THE STUDIO B SESSIONS TRACK LIST:

1. Branded
(written by Marty Stuart)

2. Country Boy Rock & Roll
(written by Don Reno)

3. Drifting Apart
(written by Marty Stuart)

4. Bridge Washed Out
(written by Warner Mack)

5. A World Without You
(written by Marty Stuart and Connie Smith)

6. Hummingbyrd
(written by Marty Stuart)

7. Hangman
(written by Marty Stuart and Johnny Cash)

8. Ghost Train Four-Oh-Ten
(written by Marty Stuart)

9. Hard Working Man
(written by Marty Stuart)

10. I Run To You
(written by Marty Stuart and Connie Smith)

11. Crazy Arms
(written by Ralph E. Mooney and Charles P. Seals)

12. Porter Wagoner’s Grave
(written by Marty Stuart)

13. Little Heartbreaker
(written by Marty Stuart and Ralph E. Mooney)

14. Mississippi Railroad Blues
(written by Marty Stuart)

Promotional materials provided by SugarHill Records