Marty Stuart's Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions album hits stores on Tuesday, and it's as good a representation of Stuart's art and soul as anything he's done.

He recorded it at the historic studio where Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Jim Reeves and so many others made classic hits. He wrote songs that evoke country music's history and its future, with lyrics that touch on Stuart's past. And he brought in not only his Fabulous Superlatives band but also legendary figures such as his wife, Connie Smith, and veteran steel guitar great Ralph Mooney.

"Moon is my favorite musician," Stuart said. "And he's playing great. Why would you throw away a Picasso? An eternal gift is an eternal gift."

Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives (Kenny Vaughan, Paul Martin and Harry Stinson) will play an album-release show Wednesday at the Belcourt Theatre.

What else is up in Stuart's world? As usual, nearly everything. He's producing a Connie Smith album, he's planning a third season of RFD TV's The Marty Stuart Show, he's featured in The Art of Country Music: The Marty Stuart Collection exhibit at New Orleans' Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and he has put together the new "Marty Selects" section at Davis-Kidd Booksellers.

He'll sign copies of Ghost Train at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Green Hills Davis-Kidd, where his picks for the top 100 country music albums of all time will be displayed along with hand-picked DVDs, books, photos and stage costumes.

"Coming up with those Top 100 albums was a grand opportunity for me," he said. "I went through my collection, went to the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and did a lot of homework. I put it together from the perspective of, 'So, you've never heard traditional country music? Here's the starting place.' "

By Peter Cooper