Every single song the great Jimmie Rodgers ever recorded! Jimmie Rodgers might be THE forefather of traditional country music, and one of the great hard times poets of the century. Bear Family has gone all out to include his entire recorded history, and if justice served this set would be celebrated in the same manner as Harry Smith's Antholology Of American Folk Music. The recorded history here is every bit as important, if not more so, to the maturation of American music – but even more importantly, it's filled with breathlessly great songs! Everything's here – "The Soldier's Sweetheart", "Sleep, Baby, Sleep", "Ben Dewberry's Final Run", "Mother Was A Lady", "Blue Yodel", "Treasure's Untold", "Mississippi Moon", "You And My Old Guitar", "I'm Lonely And Blue", "My California Sunshine Girl", "Mississippi River Blues", "Nobody Knows But Me", "She Was Happy 'Til She Met You", "For The Sake Of Day's Gone By", "Jimmie's Mean Mama Blues", "In The Jailhouse Now", "T.B. Blues", "Let Me Be Your Sidekick", and tons more. Tuberculosis took Jimmie away while he was still in his 30s, but he left an incredible legacy – unprecedented music that fused old time gospel, blues, and mountain folk into a new American art form. Nearly 150 tracks, including many alternate versions, and a great booklet crammed with biographical information and photos. CD

One of the great American folk and country figures of the past half century, and one who doesn't get the mainstream reverence he deserves – Tom Paley, a founding member of The New Lost City Ramblers – and he's rambling quite beautifully on these 2011 recordings with his Old Time Moonshine Revue! There's an experienced, elegiac quality here on Tom's voice and on the songs, but it's lively and timeless! He's in his mid 80s and in truly classic form here! Includes "Roll On, Roll On", "Little Birdie", "Beelzebubbles", "Johnson City Blues", "The Fiddling Soldier", "A Horse Named Bill", "Whiskey Seller", "Little Rabbit", "Green Grow The Lilacs", "Poor Bill" CD

A really great collection of work from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – a set that's a collection of mostly older tracks, but which also includes a dozen unissued numbers – all put together with that special flair that always made the group's mid-70s records so different than work of their contemporaries! In other words, this is hardly a lean "greatest hits" collection – and instead, the 3LP collection has bits from the first decade of the group's career coming together in all sorts of different ways – almost with the longform exploratory sense of Will The Circle Be Unbroken, and the playful interplay of their Stars & Stripes set – both expanded packages like this. There's many gems here in an array of styles – and titles include "Bayou Jubilee/Sally Was A Goodun", "Some Of Shelly's Blues", "Ripplin Waters", "You Are My Flower", "Creepin Round Your Back Door", "Sixteen Tracks", "Honky Tonkin", "Soldier's Joy", "Buy For Me The Rain", "Melissa", "Woody Woodpecker", "Cosmic Cowboy (part 1)", "Mother Earth Provides For Me", "Jamaica Lady", "Gavotte No 2", "All I Have To Do Is Dream", "Visiting An Old Friend", and "Win Or Lose". (Rock, Folk/Country) CD