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One of these days, roots-music guitar master Jim Lauderdale is going to take some time off.

Say, maybe in 2011.

More than likely, however, when that time rolls around, Lauderdale will have been bitten once again by the muse, that creative spirit that’s kept him working at a pace that would have long ago put most musicians in their grave.

Somehow, Lauderdale finds the energy to keep going — not just functioning, but consistently adding to a body of work that shows off the skills of a master craftsman. Maybe it’s his indefatigable spirit; maybe it’s the creative battery charge he gets from music. Or maybe it’s just his dedication to tai-chi.

“It’s kind of a hobby of mine, and it helps keep me centered; I don’t know if I could ever call myself centered, but if I didn’t do it, I would probably be scattered even more so than I am now,” Lauderdale told The Daily Times this week. “I’m going over to China in December for a couple of weeks to study with a couple of masters over there, and that’ll be kind of a break, even though it’s an early-morning, late-at-night schedule.

“One of these days, I am going to take some time off, but it’s going to have to be a while. I keep telling people that eventually I’ll chill out a little more and settle down, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon.”

Consider his prolific output over the past seven years: Four albums of his own music (2001’s “The Other Sessions,” 2002’s “Hummingbirds” and two released on the same day last fall, “Country Super Hits Vol. 1” and “Bluegrass”) and three on which he collaborated with other artists — “Headed for the Hills,” recorded with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, “Lost in the Lonesome Pines,” a Grammy winning collaboration with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys and “Wait ’Til Spring,” recorded with New York jam band Donna the Buffalo.

In addition, the North Carolina native is one of the most in-demand songwriters in Nashville, as well as a guitarist with whom many of his peers are clamoring to collaborate. He’s always looking ahead to the next project, such as the two he has in the fire right now — a follow-up bluegrass album and an album with Telecaster guitar legend James Burton.

“In some ways, fate kind of has a hand in what I do next, because with a lot of my best-laid plans or whatever, it usually takes me longer to complete them than I actually think they will,” Lauderdale said. “I might plan all of these different things, but I just can’t finish them in time. I wanted to have the James Burton stuff out now, but it was taking me so long, I just decided to go in and do a bluegrass record. That kind of helped my creative congestion in a way, because we went in and started knocking that thing out really quickly.

“I knew I was planning to do another bluegrass record soon, and that was kind of a nice surprise the way it turned out. The other bluegrass record that came out last fall took a long time for me to do; I had planned to get that out earlier, so that’s why I put it out with the country record on the same day, even though some of the labels I was talking to wanted to really space them out. I’m not sure if it’s to my advantage or disadvantage, but sometimes I just feel this urgency to get things out.

“Only time will tell if that’s a good idea or not,” he added. “There’s just some kind of instinct or something in me that tells me to do that.”

Other times, he’ll be hit with little flashes of intuition, he said. They may come to him while he’s doing tai-chi in a park, or while he’s watching another musician perform. He’s learned to pay attention to those little flashes, however, and most of the time his connections to others in the industry and his own determination to get things done parlay them into success.

“For example, I was out doing my tai-chi in the park, and all of the sudden I thought, ‘Hey, I need to produce an album on [Clinch Mountain Boy] Jack Cooke, and I need to do it soon,’” Lauderdale said. (That album, “Sittin’ On Top of the World,” was released in February.) “Also, a bolt of the blue kind of happened at Ralph Stanley’s festival. There was a guy that Ralph brought out on stage to sing a cappella gospel named Frank Newsome, and he just blew me away. I just started crying when I heard this guy singing, because it was so beautiful.”

A few months later, Lauderdale mentioned Newsome to his peers at Doc Watson’s annual Merlefest. Shortly thereafter, Lauderdale was on his way to Haysi, Va., to record Newsome in his church. Although anyone familiar with music knows that recording and producing can be an arduous undertaking, Lauderdale makes it seem easy — especially when he reels off the list of artists with whom he’d like to work and record.

“I’d like to do some writing and/or recording with Elvis Costello; at least a song or two,” he said. “I’d like to work with Keith Richards, and we’ve been talking about getting Neko Case and Kelly Hogan to sing some harmonies on this record we’re working on. I’d also like to do some kind of thing with George Jones sometime. And Buddy Miller and I are still talking about doing a duets record, but he and I both have been so busy, we’ve just never been able to schedule it.”