Aug. 8—When I am leading tours, especially in the Italian region of Tuscany, I'm always amazed at how much history we pass on a nondescript road without ever knowing what we are missing. On a seemingly simple one-mile stretch outside of our friend's villa in the remote Tuscan countryside, one passes historic tombs from Etruscan times (8th Century BC) to a spot where Da Vinci painted a still life, to a mythical cistern from the 14th century to World War II sites with even more history in between. All of this on a stretch of road that 99 out of 100 people would drive by oblivious to what has come before.
We pass different types of histories here in Mississippi. If one is driving down Center Avenue in Philadelphia, he or she may pass a nondescript building and think well that's just a shuttered storefront next to a barber shop across the store from a payday loan operation. Ten times out of 10 you would pass that building not knowing there are more than 20,000 unique, historic, and priceless pieces of country music artifacts and memorabilia inside.
Last week — in that nondescript spot — I spent one of the more enjoyable and interesting days I have spent in months.
Maybe I should stop and give a little backstory here. Bluegrass and country music legend — and Philadelphia native — Marty Stuart, is a friend. He and I have done a couple of projects together over the years. I'm sure everyone reading this piece knows about this Mississippi superstar, but here's a quick primer for the one potential person who doesn't. Marty Stuart is the five-time Grammy-winning, multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, performer, and all-around great guy who started touring with Lester Flatt when he was 13 years old. At 19, he began touring with Johnny Cash. He married one of Johnny Cash's daughters and lived next door to Cash for the next three or four decades. Actually, Marty had Johnny Cash as a neighbor on one side and Roy Orbison on the other. He has enjoyed an impressive solo career since the mid-1980s and also has an encyclopedic knowledge of bluegrass and country music.
In the early 1980s, Marty started collecting country music artifacts and collectibles. He currently owns the largest private collection of country music memorabilia in the world. He is also in the process, in a joint venture with the city of Philadelphia, in building The Congress of Country Music, which will house that impressive and important collection as well as a performance venue.
Extra Table, the nonprofit I founded in 2009, hosts a fundraiser every December called Merry Mississippi. We offer 12 unique Mississippi experiences online to raise funds to feed Mississippians in need across our state. Last year Extra Table executive director Martha Allen and I were in my office brainstorming ideas for unique Mississippi experiences, and I said, "Let me call Marty."