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A lonely Westerner in Nashville, Marty Robbins salved his soul by cutting an album (in one afternoon) of mostly self-composed cowboy ballads. One of them was a four-and-a-half-minute epic, "El Paso," that broke every rule of Top 40 programming to become a No. 1 pop and country hit in 1960. Robbins w...

With 41 tracks drawn from nine record labels, the two-disc Essential Willie Nelson is impressive in its breadth. Disc one is simply superb; it begins with 1961's "Night Life," recorded for the obscure Bellaire label, and moves on to several of Nelson's early 1960s Liberty recordings, an overlooked g...

Patsy Cline - The Definitive Collection...

12 Songs of Christmas...

In 1967 Glen Campbell broke through to become a household name following his hit version of Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." With follow-up hits "I Wanna Live" and "Wichita Lineman" paving the way for his enormously successful CBS variety show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, Campbell r...

All Time Greatest Hits: Roger Miller...

Appalachian Stomp is an ideal starter disc for those just beginning to explore bluegrass. Mostly this is because its 18 selections are so immediately accessible. The "classics" here, in other words, are usually those infrequent bluegrass cuts to have gained radio recognition beyond a core bluegrass ...

Marty Robbins has more greatest-hits compilations than most artists have hits. This 20-cut single-disc collection is one of the better values, with a representative selection that extends from gunfighter balladry such as "El Paso" (his 1959 chart-topper and biggest crossover success) and "Big Iron" ...

Less successful when it's sentimental (Waylon Jennings' "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys") than when it's wry (Willie Nelson's myth-puncturing "Me and Paul"), this cash-in compilation of previously released cuts was just in time to grab the first platinum record ever awarded a country album. It's...

Countless Westerns have centered around the theme of a young turk coming into town to try to take down a legendary gunslinger. Well, for the past couple of decades, Willie Nelson has turned that imagery on its head, attracting countless younger artists eager to soak up some of his musical mojo and i...