Before Marty became a country star, he was a bluegrass picker—he made his Nashville debut at the historic Ryman Auditorium at age 13, playing mandolin behind the legendary Lester Flatt. Recorded in July 2003, this off-the-cuff live album stands as a rededication to the joyous, spontaneous, virtuosic music that first earned him a place in the public eye.

For Live at the Ryman, Marty augments his ace Fabulous Superlatives with a trio of high-level bluegrassers: fiddler Stuart Duncan, banjo player Charlie Cushman and Dobro master Uncle Josh Graves, to whom Marty regularly redirects the spotlight. This ad hoc, barely rehearsed supergroup charges confidently through bluegrass and country standards, a couple of rockabilly numbers and acoustic recastings of Marty's 1990s hits "The Whiskey Ain't Workin' Anymore" and "Hillbilly Rock."

Following August's glowing gospel CD Souls' Chapel and October's Native American song cycle Badlands, Live at the Ryman completes a trilogy of deeply felt, highly personal labors of love from an American master.