Reviewed by Dave Brassington

For those not familiar with the British Association Of Country Music, they are a non profit organisation dedicated to re-issuing country music on CDs sourced from long deleted recordings of the '40s, '50s and '60s. There are 29 tracks here emanating from the bluegrass recordings made for Starday Records during the duo's short career between1958-1962. While both Jimmie and Red played a variety of instruments, here it is mainly Jimmie on mandolin and Red on guitar. Musically this has that "high lonesome sound" as Bill Monroe once famously described his music. For modern devotees of bluegrass used to the great sounds of Alison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs, Blue Highway, etc, this may sound a little harsh. Apart from the Stanley Brothers' classic "Rank Stranger" and "There Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down" by Brother Claude Ely, the rest of the material is unfamiliar to me, almost all written by Jimmie or Red and backed by plenty of mountain fiddle and hard driving 5 string banjo. It makes for a most exciting sound.There are some really great gospel songs featured here, in particular "Coming Of The Lord", "I Heard The Cry From The Cross" and "You Can't Hide From God". Subsequently Jimmie left the music business to become a full time minister. All in all, timeless bluegrass from a hugely talented duo.

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