Sage Arts

Guest spots by Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart. John Prine, Larry Campbell and the Old Crow Medicine Show almost guarantee an album’s quality. The surprise is that Jubilee, recorded to mark the 25th Anniversary of Marley’s Ghost, is better than you imagine. For all of the instrumental mastery – including pedal steel guitar and fiddle – it’s the vocals on these mostly traditional country tunes (with hints of Western a la Marty Robbins) that will blow you away with their purity. Whether the song name-checks Hank Williams – as in “Hank and Audrey” – or is a pedal-steel classic ballad such as “If You Were a Bluebird,” the group sings with the heartfelt conviction that only those who embody music’s spirituality can convey. Score another hit for fans of traditional country who Merle Haggard dubbed “the forgotten people.”