Flatt & Scruggs/Stanley Brothers - Selected Sides 1947-53: The Very Best of Bluegrass (CD)

All Music Guide

The Very Best of Bluegrass contains 94 remastered tracks, spread out over four CD's, covering the earliest recordings of both the Stanley Brothers and Flatt Scruggs. The Stanley Brothers material highlights their initial post World War Two recordings from 1947 and 1948 for RichRTone and their four year run with Columbia from 194953. Classics tunes like "Molly and Tenbrooks," "Little Maggie," "Pretty Polly," and "Man of Constant Sorrow," are heard in their original incarnations and would became standards of the genre. Equally rich in revelatory material are the Flatt Scruggs tunes recorded for Mercury from 1948 to 1952, between a four year stint with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys and their longstanding contract with Columbia Records. During this four year period the newly formed Foggy Mountain Boys introduced songs that would become the hallmark of bluegrass music including "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms," "Old Salty Dog Blues," and "Pike County Breakdown". P...urists will find this box to their liking as JSP not only does an admirable job remastering the tracks but providing recording dates, personnel and a bit of history that is easily accessible in individual jewel cases as opposed to a bulky booklet. Well done and recommended. - Al Campbell, All Music Guide Read more Less