Marty Stuart

He put out not one, but two excellent albums in 2005, and Marty Stuart is not slowing down in this new year.

On February 7, the thoroughly rejuvenated country Renaissance man will follow the Delta gospel collection Souls' Chapel and Badlands: Ballads of the Lakota Sioux, a concept album about American Indian issues, with Live at the Ryman. On it, Stuart and his band, the Fabulous Superlatives, unplug and go bluegrass, taking the 47-year-old Mississippi native back to his roots (he began his career at age 13 as mandolinist in Lester Flatt's band).

It's a lively program of originals and evergreens, and, as with all of his best work, it shows Stuart less concerned with stylistic purity than with honesty and feeling.

By Nick Cristiano