Tempted (1991)

Mississippi mandolinist and guitar player Stuart has the right pedigree: He started his professional career at the age of 13 in Lester Flatt's bluegrass band, went on to pick for Johnny Cash, and today has a closetful of bejeweled jackets. But the 32-year-old singer and instrumentalist, who plays what he calls ''hard-rockin' hillbilly music,'' a fusion of rockabilly, bluegrass, and stone-cold country, has never matured into the songwriter people thought he would. He has varying writing success on Tempted with cowriters Paul Kennerley and Kostas, but his finest performances are of songs by the masters, especially Bill Monroe and Hank Williams' little-recorded ''I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome.'' With his colorless voice, Stuart may always be a sideman no matter how close he gets to the solo spotlight.

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