Personnel: Roy Acuff (vocals, fiddle); Jess Easterday (guitar, mandolin, bass instrument); Lonnie Wilson (guitar); Clell "Cousin Jody" Sumney (steel guitar); Brother Oswald (dobro, banjo); Tommy Magness (fiddle); Jimmie Riddle (accordion); Red Jones, Velma Williams, Joe Zinkan (bass instrument).

After Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff may be the figure most important to the development of early country music. Acuff's vocal style--an earthy, sincere, sometimes-twangy croon--indelibly influenced everyone from Hank Williams to George Jones, and, as a songwriter, fiddler, performer, and mainstay at the Grand Ole Opry, he embodied the very spirit of country music for more than 60 years. While those interested in a thorough exploration of Acuff's music may want a more comprehensive compilation, THE ESSENTIAL ROY ACUFF is a powerhouse introduction that boils down the enormity of Acuff's achievement to 14 must-have tracks.

"Great Speckled Bird," the 1936 single that brought Acuff popular recognition and became one of his signature tunes, leads off the set. Other classics, like his famous versions of "Wabash Cannonball" and "Tennessee Waltz" (which he was one of the first to record), are accounted for, as is his cover of Hank Williams's "I Saw the Light." Acuff's cohort and publishing partner Fred Rose wrote many of the tunes here, and Acuff's reading of the achingly beautiful "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" alone is worth the price of this excellent collection.