Digging from the extensive archives at , this album, part of the American Masters series, gives the listener a nice overview of a genre's facets. Luckily for the listener with a short attention span, this compilation features very few of the oldest, scratchiest-sounding works and has a pretty good focus on the up-tempo stuff. opens it up with a , followed by a slow from and a two-step from . , , and take up another slower number, followed immediately by jumping with his fiddle fast and hard enough to sound like a small ensemble. has a bouncing swing to its work, has a little in his sound, and the old take their opportunity to contribute a slow rendition of and combine for a nice rendition in honor of uses his fiddle to good effect in uses a bass drum to pound out the power of The provide a traditional song, returns with a romp ( ) heavy on the triangle, and makes a nice vocal show. The album finishes up on the venerable and his fiddle playing is a raucous, if not cacophonous piece ( ). Overall, it's not a bad collection of music at all, with the weight of the catalog to back it up. For those interested in , it's a fine starting point, comparable with 's . ~ Adam Greenberg