25 tracks: 46mins47secs. The numbers in parentheses are the relevant track numbers.

Don Reno & Bill Harrell with The Tennessee Cut-Ups: Gotta Travel On (1), Worried Man Blues (5); Nine Pound Hammer (10) and Whitehouse Blues (20);
Reno & Smiley with The Tennessee Cut-Ups: Lee Highway Blues (18);
Red Smiley and The Bluegrass Cut-Ups: Roll On Buddy (2); Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone (7); Little Glasss Of Wine (11); Shady Grove (16) and Rock About My Sara Jane;
Hylo Brown & The Timberliners: Lonesome Road Blues (3); The Prison Song (8); Walking Cane (13); Little John Henry (17) and Girl In The Blue Velvet Band;
Earl Taylor & Jim McCall with The Stoney Mountain Boys: Little Maggy (4); Cripple Creek (9); Pretty Polly (14); Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms (19) and I'm Gettin' Ready To Go (24);
Clarence 'Tater' Tate: Sally Goodin';
Mac Martin & The Dixie Travellers sing Katie Kline;
Vassar Clements with Bobby Smith and The Boys from The Shilo: Columbus Rag (6);
Curly Fox: Black Mountain Rag (12)

On first sight of the CD sleeve, with the little girl and a dog and a couple of apparently poser instrumentalists, my heart sank, but further examination made me realise that 'you can't judge a book by its cover' - a very fitting proverb in this case. We get a lot of CDs that we prefer not to review and I expected this to be one of them, but how wrong I was! This is the real thing: a high-sound-quality compilation CD of tracks from both original CDs and other compilations.

Despite it being exhausting to listen to - it just doesn't let up - for me it's the best compilation I've ever heard. I thought for a moment that I was going to get a rest with Cripple Creek but oh, no, it was only the introduction that was slow...

I'm not going to waste any more words. Look at the bands, look at the 25 titles.
If you like compilations, go out and get it!

Derek Brandon E-mail feedback

13 Feb 2006