It's a wild, wild world in Marty Stuart's haunting "Way Out West."

This brilliantly mad trip puts Stuart in the storyteller's seat for this ode to the mysterious American West. Heady scenery and imagery and larger-than-life characters strike a perfect balance between vivid imagination and a story that could very well have come straight from history books.

Desolate, ethereal and brooding, the masterful playing from Stuart and his Superlatives combined with the atmospheric production from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' guitarist Mike Campbell puts Stuart's project in a class of its own, a modern twist on a classic tale of a mystical journey and spiritual desert awakening.

"Way Out West" is the title track for Stuart's new album, a project he says was conceived as a love letter to the "lonely but magical American West," specifically to California.

"If you go and sit by yourself in the middle of the Mojave Desert at sundown and you're still the same person the next morning when the sun comes up, I'd be greatly surprised. ... It is that spirit world of the West that enchants me."

That enchantment inspired an album that will enchant you. If you take one listen to the title track and don't feel as if you're right there with Stuart in his captivating journey, then I'll be greatly surprised.

Way Out West will be released Friday (March 10).