Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives are coming to the Bloomington Center on Feb. 6

The five-time Grammy winner brings one of country music's sharpest touring bands to East Street for a Saturday night in February.

There are country bands, and then there are bands other players go to watch. Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives are the second kind, and they're bringing that show to downtown Bloomington this winter.

The group plays the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2027, at 7 p.m. The date was announced Oct. 14, and tickets are on Ticketmaster, the center's ticketing partner. The building at 600 N. East St. holds about 1,200, which means the seats are good almost anywhere.

Stuart's own site calls him a five-time Grammy winner, but the name on the ticket is the band's too, and that matters. The Superlatives are Kenny Vaughan on guitar, Harry Stinson on drums and Chris Scruggs on bass and steel guitar, with Stuart on guitar and mandolin. They play like a working unit, not like hired help, and the harmonies are as much the point as the picking.

If the last thing you heard from them was a vocal record, catch up on *Space Junk*. In 2025 the band put out what Stuart's site calls their first-ever full-length double LP of original instrumentals: 20 tracks, first released as a Record Store Day exclusive on Snakefarm Records and mostly cut at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Stuart named two '60s favorites as the inspiration: The Ventures and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Surf twang, horn-band swing, played by a country band that can turn on a dime.

A country band built for players, with an instrumental record that runs from The Ventures to the Tijuana Brass.

The band's 2022 single "Country Star," shows the vocal side, so expect a set that moves between vocal numbers and the instrumental side.

The room suits all of that. The BCPA is a proper seated theater, the kind of place where you can hear the difference between Vaughan's Telecaster and Scruggs' steel guitar without straining. A band this precise sounds best in a hall built for listening, and Bloomington–Normal doesn't get many nights like this.

On tickets: shows at this level in a room this size tend to go well before the night itself. Check the center's Ticketmaster page for what's left, and pick your section now if you care where you sit.

February in Central Illinois is cold and gray, and there aren't many good reasons to go out. A Saturday night with one of the best bands in country music is a good one.

Sources: Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts — Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.com); Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives — Ticketmaster artist page (ticketmaster.com); Marty Stuart — official site (martystuart.net); Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives announce Space Junk (martystuart.net); Space Junk — martystuart.net (martystuart.net); Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives release new single "Country Star" (martystuart.net); Marty Stuart Returns With New Single 'Country Star' (udiscovermusic.com); Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives: Tiny Desk Concert (npr.org)