Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives bring the twang to Nashua this Saturday

One of country music's tightest road bands plays Nashua Center for the Arts on Nov. 7, still riding the surf-and-cosmos instrumentals of "Space Junk."

Some bands back a singer. The Fabulous Superlatives feel more like a gang. "Cousin" Kenny Vaughan plays guitar, Harry Stinson drums and Chris Scruggs bass, with Marty Stuart out front. They play classic country like it's still being invented, and on Saturday night they bring it to Main Street.

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives play Nashua Center for the Arts on Saturday, Nov. 7, with music at 8 p.m. The show was announced Oct. 14, so the run-up has been short. Tickets are sold through the venue. With a room this size and a band this well loved by pickers and country diehards, waiting until Saturday afternoon is a gamble.

The record they're carrying this time doesn't have a single lyric on it. *Space Junk* is the band's first-ever full-length instrumental album, a double LP of 20 originals on Snakefarm Records. It came out first as a Record Store Day vinyl exclusive on April 12, 2025, and later arrived on CD, vinyl and digital. Most of it was cut at Capitol Recording Studios in Hollywood. In the band's own announcement, Stuart said the album was largely inspired by "two of my favorite bands from sixties, The Ventures and Herb Alpert." Alpert went one better: the cover is his painting.

A double album of twangy instrumentals, with a cover painted by Herb Alpert, is not a career move. It's a band having fun.

That fits a group whose previous studio album, *Altitude*, was Stuart's first in six years when it was announced. Lately the Superlatives have treated each new record less as a product to promote than as a reason to get back on the bus. Reviewers have called *Space Junk* everything from surf guitar to late-'60s cosmic-cowboy country rock.

The room suits it. Nashua Center for the Arts, at 201 Main St., opened its doors in April 2023 after more than two decades of planning, and the city hoped it would change how downtown feels after dark. The center holds 1,000, which is big enough for a proper Saturday-night crowd and small enough that you can watch the fretwork. That matters with a band whose fretwork is half the point. The Ink Link reported that the center was "exceeding expectations," and a booking like this one shows why: a touring act of this stature would once have meant a drive to Boston.

If you only know Stuart from TV or the history books, Saturday is a chance to hear why so many younger country and Americana players treat this band as the standard. If you already know, you've probably bought your ticket.

Go early, find the bar, and save some room in your head for a few surf instrumentals you'll be humming in the car on the way home.

Sources: Nashua Center for the Arts (tickets) (nashuacenterforthearts.com); JamBase: Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives at Nashua Center for the Arts (jambase.com); Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives announce Space Junk (martystuart.net) (martystuart.net); Saving Country Music: Marty Stuart unveils surf guitar-inspired album Space Junk (savingcountrymusic.com); Relix: Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives announce Space Junk (relix.com); American Songwriter: Marty Stuart announces first album in six years, Altitude (americansongwriter.com); Boston Globe: Nashua gets a new performing arts center after decades of planning (bostonglobe.com); Ink Link: Nashua Center for the Arts exceeding expectations (nashua.inklink.news); IAVM: Nashua NH Center for the Arts opens its doors (blog.iavm.org); Marty Stuart - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)