Best Contemporary Country

This nicely priced 2-CD set marks the first time that John's hits from his Warner Bros, RCA and Mercury LPs have all been available in one package!

Contractually barred from recording bluegrass for more than 12 years, Skaggs has obviously been champing at the bit. If there's any justice, the commercial success of Bluegrass Rules will send a strong message to record companies: Bluegrass music can and does sell records, especially when it's as flawlessly executed as Skaggs's latest.

Whether he's taking creative leaps beyond the facts of his life ("The Rock of My Soul," "I Wish It Would Rain") or operating within a more transparently confessional mode ("Why Don't We Talk About It," "I Know Love Is All I Need"), the results ring redemptively true.

That success, scored in the wake of the Kingston Trio's Tom Dooley , prompted the Atkins-Arnold team to prepare an album of folk-based saga songs, Thereby Hangs A Tale .

After his career peaked with one of the most unlikely top five hits ever, the gloom-laden 1976 narrative "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," Lightfoot's production tailed off sharply, though this anthology's "Stay Loose" ('86) and "Restless" ('93) are testament to his enduring skills as a songwriter and performer.

NEW Combo BLUWAVS CD and FLAC FILE.

Twisting strains of Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, and Gram Parsons into a stripped-down sound wholly his own, Yoakam is one of music's true mavericks, and his body of work is one of the most innovative in all of country. Rooted in the purest country traditions, and wrapped in raw rock 'n' roll attitude, Yoakam's art rivets fans of both genres and remains as utterly original today as when it started burning up the charts in the '80s.

Merry Texas Christmas Y' All by Asleep At The Wheel.

An aptly named album if ever there was one, Not for Kids Only combines the talents of two legendary performers, the late Jerry Garcia, singer-guitarist of the Grateful Dead , and David Grisman, mandolinist and father of "dawg music," a melding of bluegrass, jazz, swing, Latin, and Jewish klezmer sounds. On this 1993 recording, the two devoted friends make seemingly effortless music, adapting traditional and old-time folk into a personalized sound so "homemade" (with jew's-harp and tambourine) as to inspire any child, young or old, to pick up whatever's at hand to play along.

An aptly named album if ever there was one, Not for Kids Only combines the talents of two legendary performers, the late Jerry Garcia, singer-guitarist of the Grateful Dead , and David Grisman, mandolinist and father of "dawg music," a melding of bluegrass, jazz, swing, Latin, and Jewish klezmer sounds. On this 1993 recording, the two devoted friends make seemingly effortless music, adapting traditional and old-time folk into a personalized sound so "homemade" (with jew's-harp and tambourine) as to inspire any child, young or old, to pick up whatever's at hand to play along.