25 Years

By the time this retrospective set was released in the early 1980s, the Country Gentlemen had gone through many personnel shifts, the only constant presence being guitarist and lead singer Charlie Waller. This collection provides an excellent overview of the group’s consistent dedication to both celebrating and aggressively pushing the boundaries of traditional bluegrass music. Strictly traditional settings of classic songs like “I Am Weary” and “The Fields Have Turned Brown” rub up against arrangements of songs by Bob Dylan, Mel Tillis, and Gordon Lightfoot.