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There are guitar pairings, and then there are guitar pairings. On Thursday, April 2, Marty Stuart and Molly Tuttle bring the Cosmic Twang Guitars on Fire tour to the Smith Center for the Arts in Geneva — and if you have any reverence for American roots music, this one deserves your full attention.
About the Artists
Marty Stuart’s biography reads like a living museum of country music. He was on the road with Lester Flatt by his early teens, spent years touring and recording with Johnny Cash, and has spent decades since carrying the torch for traditional country with an outlaw edge. His induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame wasn’t a surprise to anyone who’d been paying attention — it was long overdue. Stuart doesn’t perform so much as channel something: the ghost of Bakersfield, the grit of Nashville’s back rooms, the glitter and the twang all at once. If you want to pick up his albums on Amazon before the show, start with The Pilgrim and go from there.
Molly Tuttle is the other half of this equation, and she is absolutely no secondary act. Back-to-back Grammy wins. A flat-picking technique that has made seasoned guitar players stop mid-sentence and just listen. She came out of the Bay Area acoustic scene and has spent the last several years redefining what modern bluegrass sounds like for a new generation — without ever losing the thread that connects her to the old ways. The combination of her velocity and precision alongside Stuart’s deep well of country tradition makes this tour something genuinely rare. You can also grab some Marty Stuart merch on Amazon if you want to show up already representing.
About The Smith
The Smith Center for the Arts — locals just call it The Smith — is a 1,400-seat opera house in the heart of downtown Geneva, right on the shores of Seneca Lake. It’s the kind of venue that makes you feel the weight of a building that has heard good music for a long time. The sight lines are excellent, the acoustics suit acoustic and Americana performances particularly well, and Geneva itself is worth the drive — especially in early April when the Finger Lakes are shaking off winter and the lake is wide and gray and beautiful. Give yourself time to walk around before the show.
Tickets & Show Details
Doors open at 7:00 PM, show at 8:00 PM. Tickets range from $44.18 to $81.58 and are on sale now.
Get your tickets here — before the good seats go.
A show like this in a room this size doesn’t come around often. The Smith is a special room for a special pairing, and if Americana and roots guitar mean anything to you, April 2 is already a plans night.