Jim Lauderdale photo by David McClister, courtesy of Yep Roc Records.

Even in Nashville, a city teeming with singular talents, Jim Lauderdale is unique. He came to Music City, for example, not as a kid off the Greyhound with stars in his eyes, but as a singer and songwriter who had already begun a promising career.

Once arrived, he became a high-profile performer while at the same time building his reputation as a "songwriter’s songwriter," a reliable source of hit material for the Dixie Chicks, George Strait, George Jones, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless and other country music icons. By 2002, Jim’s collaboration with Ralph Stanley, Lost in the Lonesome Pines, garnered him a Grammy for Bluegrass Album of the Year, and he was presented with both the Americana Music Association’s Artist of the Year Award and Song of the Year.

Pundits in the know took note early on of Jim’s appeal. Jim Macnie suggests correctly on allmusic.com that, "If every Nashville singing star had to cut at least one Jim Lauderdale song, country wouldn’t be the Chumpville that it is these days." The Nashville Scene classifies him as "a hip country chameleon." And Entertainment Weekly lauds his ability to make his songs "ache, bend, snort, and moan in a way no one else does."

All of this suggests that Jim isn’t an artist you can file easily into any one category, and while this is certainly true, one other aspect of Jim’s artistic identity rings even truer than his defiance of easy pigeon-holing – his sheer legendary output of world class material.

This is evidenced by Jim’s latest brainchild, the pending release of three albums, in three genres – over the course of nine months. Yeah, that’s right, nine months. The first in this patchwork trilogy is Jim’s latest bluegrass installment titled The Bluegrass Diaries, the second album a collaboration with legendary guitar monolith James Burton and the third release in the triumvirate features Grateful Dead lyrical maverick Robert Hunter.

Jim Lauderdale photo by David McClister, courtesy of Yep Roc Records.

On the first of the three, The Bluegrass Diaries, Jim picks up where he left off with his Grammy-nominated album Bluegrass, allowing him to continue to indulge his passion for foot stompin’ with friends like Randy Kohrs, Jesse Cobb, Richard Bailey, Aaron Till and many more.

As with all of Jim’s work, from his 1991 debut Planet of Love through his last classic country album, Country Super Hits Vol.1, Jim’s songs speak for themselves. Ever the craftsman, the quality of his tunes never suffers at the expense of the incredible volume of his output.

The truth is that Jim has always had that ability of writing music that reflects his originality while at the same time maintaining a sense of total authenticity. Because his mission is to write songs that excel on their own, rather than shape them to the standards of any one genre, he has been able to come up with material that can be adapted to almost any kind of interpretation.

"I recognize that my diversity can create a challenge for those that need to categorize me," he admits, "where even though I might have Ralph Stanley singing with me, there’s also some singer/songwriter stuff and some country stuff — so which bin does it belong in at the record store? That’s just not for me to decide. That kind of question has nothing to do with making music."

With three diverse albums coming out inside of one year, attempts to categorize Jim Lauderdale and his career will continue to be thwarted. The only logical conclusion is to let his resume speak for itself and peg him as what he is—one of the most prolific and gifted American songwriters in popular music today and the man Nashville’s stars turn to time and time again for hit songs as honest, sharp and starkly American as he is.