Everyone knows Philadelphia, Mississippi, native Marty Stuart worked as the guitarist for Lester Flatt, Doc Watson and Johnny Cash in his younger years. As time went on, Stuart became his own songwriting-guitar picking force. Stuart’s also a talented photographer.
Way Out West could be a soundtrack to an old spaghetti western. His band: Kenny Vaughan (guitarist), Harry Stinson (drummer) and Chris Scruggs (bassist) operate as players of the highest order. Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) played guitar on Way Out West as well as produced the sessions at Hollywood’s iconic Capitol Studios.
The collection contains 15 tunes, but it’s length clocks in at 39:25. Way Out West emits a cosmic spook where psychedelia meets Bakersfield. Way Out West opens with “Desert Prayer Part 1” that evokes images of spaceships landing amid a Native American chant before the surf music instrumental “Mojave” kicks in that emits echoes of Link Wray. “Lost In the Desert” captures the spirit of an old cowboy song.
The title track sounds like a peyote hallucination somewhere out on the edge of the Joshua Tree National Park. In fact, this composition could’ve been written for Gram Parsons. It ranks as a terrific driving song. “El Fantasma Del Toro”, another instrumental, travels to a Mexican courtyard where Spanish guitars are accompanied with a weeping pedal steel.
“Old Mexico” stands as a Stuart gem. It’s testimony to his songwriting talent. A distant Native American chant can be heard again, as if it appeared in a fever dream. Mike Campbell provides a real snakebite guitar on the wide-open “Time Don’t Wait” that sounds like a cross between The Byrds and The Heartbreakers.
The instrumental “Quicksand” could be the ‘gunslinger scene’ of a western film, and Campbell’s ominous riff indicates trouble looms. “Please Don’t Say Goodbye” stands as the album’s romantic jewel. Again, cinematic qualities inspire the listener with heart-rending guitar twangs on this number.
“Whole Lotta Highway” is a brilliant song about a truck driver as Stuart sings “Seen a whole lotta highway/With a million miles to go.” “Desert Prayer Part 2” creeps back into the sequence like some biblical mist.
“Wait For the Morning” ranks as Way Out West’s centerpiece tune. It carries an emotional, morning-after vibe amid changing times –but it’s hopeful. It feels like holding an eagle feather at the crossroads when you hear the lyrics “A new sky is dawning/A change is coming.”
The lush “Reprise” ends Way Out West and feels like glancing in the rearview mirror and seeing a long desert road behind you.