Marty Stuart and Connie Smith perform during Marty Stuart’s 19th Late Night Jam at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, June 8, 2022.

While all of those stories are beautiful, no doubt, they pale in comparison to the story behind Marty Stuart and Connie Smith’s marriage. They tied the knot on this day (July 8) in 1997 and have ...

In 1997, Marty married legendary country singer Connie Smith, the fulfillment of a longtime pledge he’d made to his mother to make Connie his wife after seeing Connie perform.

Stuart told his mother — who had named him after Marty Robbins — that he was going to marry the blue-eyed Smith. In fact, he did, tying the knot with her in 1997.

But “The Cry of the Heart” takes a different path, where resurgence doesn’t mean reinvention: It’s produced by the country musician Marty Stuart, 63, whom Smith married in 1997.