Marty Raybon, former lead singer with neo-traditional country act Shenandoah, cut his teeth as a teenager singing bluegrass and playing rhythm guitar in his familys band, American Bluegrass Express. After years as one of country musics most recognizable voices, Raybon has recently returned to the bluegrass fold with Full Circle, his first release for independent label Doobie Shea.

It allowed me to scratch an itch that Ive had for a long, long time. Starting out in bluegrass music, Ive always loved it. Man, Id bring bluegrass CDs on the bus when I was out with Shenandoah, and theyd groan Oh man, listen to this, Raybon laughs. I decided Im gonna cut me a bluegrass album, and when I do Im gonna have at it.

His vision took several years to come to fruition. After Shenandoah, he cut several gospel albums and did a stint with his brother Tim as the Raybon Brothers, releasing a single, Butterfly Kisses, that landed at No. 22 on The Billboard Hot 100 chart. He also jump-started a solo career that took root in 2000 with a self-titled release. It was brother Tim who encouraged him to return to his first love.

My brother Timmy said, Everybody and his brothers doing bluegrass albums. Of all the people that need to do a bluegrass album, you need to do one, Raybon recalls.

He talked to celebrated mandolinist and label president Ricky Skaggs about doing the album a few years ago before the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? phenomenon took the world of old-time and bluegrass music by storm and continued to coast along with his other projects, never really nailing down a definitive plan. With major country artists like Dolly Parton and Patty Loveless garnering critical praise for their bluegrass projects, it might appear that Raybon is jumping on the bandwagon, but he says thats not so. He confesses his timing has always been a bit off, and now the time just seemed right.

Raybon has known that music was his lifes calling since the age of 8, when he sang in a third grade talent show at Brookview Elementary in Jacksonville, Fla. He warbled the Johnny Horton classic, The Battle of New Orleans, and something clicked for him. His father, a fiddler, had an old Gibson J-50 and taught Martys elder brother Rick to play the G, C and D chords; Rick then taught Marty, and Marty taught his youngest brother Tim.

I believed without a shadow of a doubt that thats what I was going to do the rest of my life, Raybon remembers. I think it was the intrigue of listening and watching and knowing that something inside you just burned to do it. I thought, I cant play but Im gonna learn to play. I cant sing but Im gonna learn to sing!

Father Raybon and his boys formed American Bluegrass Express when Marty was a teenager. They found inspiration in other brother acts like the Osborne Brothers, Jim & Jesse and the Delmore Brothers, but Marty was also a big fan of Merle Haggard and Gene Watson. The Express cut an album in 1975, but before that they recorded a 45 rpm single with four bluegrass classics back to back, two songs on each side: Rank Stranger, Bluegrass Breakdown, Rawhide and Fox on the Run.

Raybon left his familys band in 1984 and made his way to Nashville to pursue a career in country music. He got a publishing deal and relocated to Muscle Shoals, Ala., where he began playing in a house band with the future members of Shenandoah. They came to the attention of CBS and were offered a recording contract, releasing a self-titled album in 1987. The following year their second album, Road Not Taken, started wracking up No. 1 singles including The Church on Cumberland Road, Sunday in the South and Two Dozen Roses. The band went on to continually greater successes, winning the Academy of Country Musics Top Vocal Group award in 1990. Their collaboration with bluegrass newcomer Alison Krauss, Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart, garnered the Vocal Event of the Year award from the Country Music Association and a Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1995. Shenandoah disbanded in 1997 and Raybon pursued his other goals. Making a bluegrass album has given him the kind of creative license that he appreciates.

The thing that was a pleasure was to be able to go into the studio and just cut what I really felt were some good songs, he explains enthusiastically. I wasnt having to answer to anybody, nobody was saying Wait a minute now, Ive spent money for this and the labels paying for this, so this is what we want. I took my budget and went in the studio and recorded that was so much fun! The album was recorded in Muscle Shoals historic Fame Recording Studios.

The resulting album is an eclectic mix of old and new songs. It kicks off with the Flatt & Scruggs classic Down the Road and is bookended with Jimmy Martins The Last Song. Raybon also covers two blues numbers by Bill Monroe: Rocky Road Blues and White House Blues. I just wanted to pick stuff that was traditional but also stuff that wasnt absolutely beaten to death, he explains. He cowrote three new songs including Everything, a duet with Sonya Isaacs, one of country and bluegrass musics purest voices. He also gives a bluegrass treatment to two songs previously recorded by Shenandoah, Next to You, Next to Me and the Hugh Prestwood gem Ghost in This House Its one of the most identifiable tunes that Ive ever sang, but also in that, Alison Krauss covered it after she heard us do it. It really lent itself to this project, he says.

Raybon says that bluegrass is in his blood and this could be a turning point in his career. Theres a tremendous multitude of people who love bluegrass music. The thing is, people are not ashamed to admit it anymore, he says. Its precision music. When you get out there at a bluegrass festival and they got 4-5 mics and youre on a hillside somewhere, you gotta give em what you got. Theres no vocal machines [to correct your pitch]. When you throw it out there, youre not going to fix it. Bluegrass is what you get, its the real thing.

Raybon brought in a crew of world-class pickers for the album including Bryan Sutton (guitar, mandolin), Rob Ickes (Dobro), Shad Cobb (fiddle), Terry Smith (bass) and David Talbot (banjo). Paul Brewster from Ricky Skaggs Kentucky Thunder provides harmony vocals with Tim Raybon. Hes already touring in support of the album with his road band consisting of Clay Jones (guitar), Glenn Harrell (fiddle), Patton Wages (banjo), Ashby Frank (mandolin), and Edgar Loudermilk (bass).

These days, Marty plays a Gibson J-45 Rosewood with a natural top. He was drawn to the guitar for its tone: Let me put it to you this way, that guitar, when I strummed down on it a few times, I knew good and well that boy, just a few years and that thing is absolutely going to hawk! he enthuses. Its already got a tone and folks tell me, man, that thing sounds absolutely great, like an older guitar.