With his latest album, The Storm, moribund due to Category 5 Records' business problems, Travis Tritt is looking towards his next album -- and the commemoration of his 20th year as a recording artist in 2009.

Tritt tells Billboard.com he's hatching tentative plans to hit the studio with good friend Marty Stuart, who he's doing an acoustic tour with this fall. "All these years Marty and I have been around each other, he's just like a brother," Tritt says. "I never get tired of being in his company. He makes me laugh, and I always enjoy picking with him ... singing with him ... sitting around talking to him. We'll probably end up co-producing that (next album) together."

Tritt says that after the soulful turn he took on The Storm, he and Stuart would probably approach the album similar to the shows they're doing together.

"I'm thinking along the lines of something more acoustic," Tritt explains. "I think we're just gonna bring this down, more along the lines of...an unplugged album and really get back to basics. I really can't say much outside of that; it's just in the talking stages now."

Tritt -- who was part of country music's class of '89 with Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill and Clint Black -- is also talking about commemorating that anniversary with some sort of television special.

"I've been talking with Marty (Stuart) and some other different artists," says Tritt, noting that he's approached PBS and DirecTV with the project. "It would be a tribute to the fact that me and those other guys were able to come out with a bang at a time music needed a shot in the arm. We were able to obviously give it something it needed and ... make a wave in the country music business that it hadn't seen in a long time."

Tritt, meanwhile, has filed a $10 million lawsuit against Category 5 for unpaid royalties and damages related to The Storm. He says that lawyers are still taking depositions and determining jurisdiction, but he hopes to one day gain full rights to the album.

By Gary Graff