"Blue railroad train goin’ down the railroad track
It makes me feel so dog-gone blue to listen to that old smoke stack
Come back again; let me hear your whistle blow
You’re takin’ the sun and leavin’ the rain and makin’ me want to go

I’ve got the blues longin’ for her company
Its many miles from where I am to the only one for me
Well, it’s lonesome here, waiting for the manifest
I hope that engineer is kind enough to let me be his guest

Blue railroad train, a good old pal to me
You take me where I want to go
I get my transportation free”

– “Blue Railroad Train”/Marty Stuart

Well last week the sounds of great original live music permeated the air in downtown Conroe beginning Thursday night with the City of Conroe’s First Thursday Free Concert at the Heritage Park Amphitheater.

And the energy and excitement carried on through Saturday night at the Crighton Theatre with the Sounds of Texas Music Series final concert for 2008. I’ll tell you this I would put Conroe’s level of live musical entertainment up against any city’s, anywhere in the country. I guarantee, no city in the country with a population of less than 55,000 people could compete with us!

Around 9:05 p.m. Marty Stuart and his cohorts called the Fabulous Superlatives hit the stage with Marty Stuart on mandolin, Paul Martin on bass fiddle, Kenny Vaughan on lead guitar and Harry Stinson on snare drum with brushes.

Although Marty Stuart sang lead on a majority of songs all four of the stellar Nashville sidemen sang both lead and harmony vocals. Utilizing only one old style cylinder mike these wonderful singers leaned in and sang harmony like a barbershop quartet or the old singing groups. They did everything from old gospel songs, bluegrass numbers and classic country tunes with lots of harmonies.

Marty Stuart is one of the consummate country and roots music historians entertaining the captive audience with his stories of famous country music legends and concerts at the famous Ryman Auditorium and the Grand Ole Opry. With their pristine picking and vocals they floored the audience with their precise musicianship and after over two hours and two encores (they were scheduled for 90 minutes) they left the stage to a third ovation.

Many veterans of the series say without a doubt, that this dynamic concert from start to finish was the best ever in the series’ nine year history.

As Dr. Mike Davis said, Ricky Skaggs may now just be the second best mandolin player to perform at the Crighton! All kidding aside, this was one special evening. I would rank this concert as not only the best in the Sounds of Texas Music Series history but it could easily be the best concert I’ve seen anywhere.

Marty’s people brought enough merchandise to service their normal crowd of between 1,500 to 3,000 patrons.

This merchandise included CDs, hard back copper table book full of classic country music photos taken by Marty himself. This book at a price tag of $115 each sold out (45 copies) and had a list of 30 on special order. They sold out of everything except 10 copies of Stuart’s press photos. They said their merchandise sales were unheard of for a small venue. Proof once again how much the audience loved the show. Next year will be the 10 year anniversary of the Series and great things are expected to celebrate this special year, so renew your tickets now!!