Country music legend and multi-talented star Marty Stuart will be the featured performer at the 20th annual Light Up The Bluff celebration Saturday, July 28, in Bluffton.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Light Up The Bluff, which has been organized and produced by brothers John and Randy Logsdon since its inception. Throughout the past two decades, Light Up The Bluff has attracted some of the most well-known entertainers in country music history - from John Anderson to Charlie Daniels to last year's headliner Lorrie Morgan.

The annual summertime concert has earned a reputation as one of the most popular and well-attended outdoor venues in the world of country western music.

The celebration is held over a two-day period from Friday, July 27, through Saturday, July 28. Friday will feature free admission with food, refreshments and entertainment. "Hillbilly Mafia" is back to perform from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday, and the World National Wrist Wrestling Federation will hold a competition at 6 p.m. with winners advancing to the national finals.

Stuart is expected to take the stage around 8:30-9 p.m. Saturday. Tickets will go on sale at various locations throughout the area. Attendees must be 21 years of age or accompanied by an adult to attend Light Up The Bluff.

Shuttle buses to the event will leave at 4 and 6 p.m. from Decorah's Heartland Inn, Country Inn, Bluff's Inn, Decorah campground, Super 8 Motel and Chimney Rock campground (near Bluffton).

Lynch BBQ of Waucoma will once again sell its award-winning food, and fireworks will follow Saturday night's performance. Beverages will be available.

According to a press release about Stuart, since starting out singing gospel as a child, a bluegrass stint with Lester Flatt in the 1970s, six years with Johnny Cash in the 1980s and coming up with his smash "hillbilly rock" hits of the 1990s, the four-time Grammy winner, platinum recording artist, Grand Ole Opry star, country music memorabilia preservationist, stylist, designer, photographer, songwriter, leader of the versatile touring and recording band The Fabulous Superlatives, Stuart has shown a zest for every conceivable flavor of country music.

Musicologist Peter North said, "Marty Stuart seems wrapped in his destiny at this point in time. Not only as country music's most notable ambassador/caretaker, but as its main archetypical crusader."

Stuart's new career chapter is Ghost Train, album which includes such country staples as the male-female duet (the heartfelt "I Run to You" written and sung with Connie Smith), the dramatic recitation (as part of "Porter Wagoner's Grave," a story song written by Stuart that raises the ghost of the late, great country icon, whose final album Stuart produced, in the dramatic style Porter mastered), the chuggy, blue-sy fellow Mississippian Jimmie Rogers-like train song, "Ghost Train Four-Oh-Ten," and such steel guitar driven, hardcore heartbreak ballads such as "A World Without You" and "Drifting Apart."

These days Stuart is seen regularly by TV viewers on RFD-TV's The Marty Stuart Show, which adds a new chapter each week to the tradition of simple, electrifying country TV with varied live sounds and top-level guests.