Various Artists - I Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow: Songs of the Carter Family

Gusto/King Records is making a habit of gathering up obscure, formerly lost, and classic country tracks and remastering them into fantastic CD releases. Here they give us another, "I Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow: The Songs of the Carter Family," a collection of 12 songs recorded mostly during the 50's and early 60's, drawing from mountain music and bluegrass performers who were simply recording favorite Carter Family songs for their own albums. The result is a surprisingly fluid whole.

I once got into a discussion on what was the greatest country song ever recorded. There were predictable responses, from George Jones to Hank Williams to Jimmie Rodgers, but I suggested the Carter Family's "Wildwood Flower," notably, Maybelle Carter's supreme acoustic guitar work on the original. I said that while few people remembered the lyrics, or even knew the name of the song, I was willing to bet that everyone knew that tune. While I did get people to agree with me, it's only the start of the music the Carter Family recorded .

The Carter Family recorded together for 15 years, from 1927 to 1941, and were one of the foundation stones of the country music genre. Maybelle Carter founded a country music dynasty that continues to this day. Once their recording career ended, in the days before the Internet, revivals, and restored music, the trio faded into the past, but their music was remembered by many of their contemporaries, and those recordings are captured here.

From artists such as the Stanley Brothers and the Country Gentlemen to less well-known mountain musicians such as Reno & Smiley and Hylo Brown, these songs are brought together beautifully on this disc, and the mastering is so good it's very hard to tell they weren't recorded all at once, and recently (although there is a tiny bit of the analog "scratch" here and there). Old country fans and new should check this disc out, and not just for its historical value. It's a great listen.