Tall, charismatic, and eschewing rustic hillbilly stage outfits in favor of sleek, tailored Nudie suits, was music's first true superstar, and he was more than aware that a little motion on-stage drove the ladies crazy. But it is ' songwriting that has ensured his legacy more than anything, and his songs -- which mixed hillbilly elements with and , all with a firm grasp of how to shade in some techniques -- crossed over regularly to the charts, and have continued to hold up well even into the 21st century. Songs like which has a spare, poetic structure so efficient it could be a haiku, and which manages to be funny, ironic, and prophetically frightening all at once, don't happen by accident, and show an awareness of craft that has a good deal more in common with than it does . This two-disc overview of ' career includes his classic singles from 1947 to 1952, a handful of haunting acoustic demos (which show him to be a quite capable acoustic guitarist), a couple of his cuts, and a half-dozen or so live spots from the Grand Ole Opry (in 1950) and Health & Happiness (in 1949) radio shows. Thankfully it includes none of the string-sweetened overdubbed versions that proliferated after ' death, and given the number of dubious and rather thrown-together collections on the market, earns trust points for being both thorough and tasteful. ~ Steve Leggett