Country & Western - A Ride Through History 1924-1960

The title and description of this box set are somewhat misleading. I would expect a balanced overview of the history of C&W recorded music, but what is contained here is a 37 CD history of 1950s C&W, plus one CD devoted to the 1920s, one CD of the 1930s, and further single CD of the 1940s. The 10" x 10" booklet has no details of the individual tracks - indeed the only track listings are those to be found on the back covers of the individual CD sleeves - and contains brief career resumes of the various artists, 15 pages in German and 15 in English, together with 30 pages of quality colour reproductions of 1950s LP sleeves and sheet music.Other than those caveats, this is a spectacularly cheap collection of great C&W. The 10x10 box is very substantial, and I cannot fault the sound quality.Docked a point for lack of recording information and track personnels, and for the dubious titling. but an absolute bargain at the price.EDIT:- even though there have been two price adjustments (upwards) since I bought my copy.

I fully endorse Jim Lodge's comments. 37 of the 40 CDs cover 1950 to 1960 so this is really a thorough history of 1950's country music plus 3 CDs of pre-1950 stuff. I love 1950's country and I'm delighted with this set - excellent value for money and it does include plenty of relatively rare tracks rather than just the usual The 20 Greatest Country Hits of 1956-type compilation. I would thoroughly recommend this set to everyone who likes country music from what I consider to be the golden era of real country. Just don't be fooled by the title! I have created myself a complete sorted track listing (as an Excel file) - if anyone is seriously interested I will happily send them a copy.

good