If ever there was a roots collection for lovers of bluegrass and old-time acoustic music, this is it. These twenty-two seminal recordings from the earliest days of the medium probably influenced more future artists than any equal number in country music history. While many of the artists' names will be new to listeners of the more modern recordings, you'll recognize lots of the future "hits".These recordings feature artists from around Ashe County, in the far northwestern corner of North Carolina-- a region sometimes known, due to its rugged isolation, as the "Lost Provinces". Artists include Grayson & Whitter, Frank Blevins & His Tar Heel Rattlers, EphraimWoodie & The Henpecked Husbands, Jack Reedy & His Walker Mountain String Band, Smyth County Ramblers, North Carolina Ridge Runners, The Hill Billies, Carolina Night Hawks, and more.This wonderful collection was compiled and expertly annotated by Raleigh's and PineCone's own Marshall Wyatt. To listen to the disk is to hear earlier echoes of the songs you've known forever: Train 45, Nine Pound Hammer, Last Gold Dollar, Groundhog, Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss, Cluck Old Hen, Likes Likker Better Than Me, Chinese Breakdown, Sally Ann, Handsome Molly... (you get the picture). Charlie Gravel