The Pilgrim (Marty Stuart album)
Marty Stuart album
The Pilgrim is the 10th studio album of country music artist Marty Stuart, released in 1999. It is a concept album, telling the story of a man (The Pilgrim) from Stuart's hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Stuart plays the role of the Pilgrim, as well as other roles.
It was a significant move in Stuart's career, as before The Pilgrim, he had been focusing more on trying to score a hit song instead of making the music that really mattered to him. With this album, he demonstrates his songwriting skills (every track is either written or co-written by Stuart) and his diverse instrumental skills. The album features many country/bluegrass legends as guest stars, including Emmylou Harris, Pam Tillis, George Jones, Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs and Johnny Cash.
Plot
The Pilgrim is based on a true story of a man from Stuart's hometown, named Norman. Everyone was surprised when Norman (described as "cross-eyed Norman" in the album's liner notes) married Rita, the town's beauty queen.
As time went by, Norman grew more and more possessive and jealous. Rita took comfort in the charms of a man she worked with at the hospital.
The public source identifies “The Pilgrim (Marty Stuart album)” as marty Stuart album. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pilgrim, Marty and Stuart.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Pilgrim (Marty Stuart album)”, the useful work is to connect “marty Stuart album” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7757111. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1999.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Pilgrim (Marty Stuart album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Pilgrim (Marty Stuart album) primary sources, The Pilgrim (Marty Stuart album) archive and Pilgrim research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Pilgrim (Marty Stuart album)”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Pilgrim (Marty Stuart album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.