Merle And Marty, Live At The Surf - GlobeGazette.com

The Surf Ballroom announces the return of Merle Haggard, with special guest Marty Stuart, to the Surf on February 27, 2015.

Marty Stuart, a five-time Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, photographer and historian, has been building a rich legacy for more than 40 years.

On his latest release with his band The Fabulous Superlatives, "Saturday Night & Sunday Morning," Stuart captures the neon and stained-glass hues of country music.

“I've always thought that country music had a really unique relationship with gospel music,” Stuart said in a news release.

“It is interesting to me that country stars can sing drinking and cheating songs authentically," he said, "then at some point during the evening or the broadcast take their hats off and say, 'Friends, here's our gospel song.' That's a time-honored tradition, from Jimmie Rodgers to Hank Williams to Johnny Cash. Rogue prophets and rogue preachers. That is my world."

Born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, Stuart caught the music bug early, displaying talent on every stringed instrument he picked up. At 13, he was logging miles as a mandolinist with Lester Flatt's road band.

In his 20s, Stuart toured with Johnny Cash and also played with legends such as Bill Monroe, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, and by the late 1980s Stuart was a solo artist.

He then recruited fellow musical missionaries Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson and Paul Martin.

“From the Superlatives' first rehearsal, I knew this was the band of a lifetime,” Stuart said. "Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson and Paul Martin are not only musical geniuses but statesmen."

With acclaimed albums like Ghost Train and Souls’ Chapel, as well as The Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV, Stuart said he's "found my place to drive a stake in the dirt and proclaim this is what I believe in.”

“I think traditional country music should be regarded alongside jazz and ballet and classical music in the pantheon of the arts.”