Starting in the 1940s, made significant recordings, particularly of important artists who might not have had the easiest time getting or keeping contracts with more commercial labels, but still had something to say artistically. This 26-track compilation assembles material recorded between the 1940s and 1990s that showed up on various releases. Unfortunately, the liner notes don't name the exact dates of all the recordings, but certainly the substantial majority of them predate 1970. These recordings were targeted toward a somewhat scholarly audience, and some might find them a little folky and gentle. Electric instruments barely appear at all (with the notable exception of the early cut ), and there's little that's as rough as the average prewar track. Yet overall, it's a good compilation of many major and minor mid-20th century performers and styles. The bigger names include (whose with drums, almost verges on -styled ), (represented by a 1957 version of his famous , and (performing together), , and . While acoustic guitar (including a of ' later covered by ) gets a fair amount of airtime, so do piano, singing ( ), and some actual ( , from a 1942 ). ~ Richie Unterberger