While never as big a name as Bill Monroe or Jimmy Martin, Red Allen was as much a master of the “high lonesome” sound as any of the other first-generation bluegrass masters. In the mid-1960s he recorded two albums’ worth of sessions for the County label, all of which are collected here. The plaintive but powerful sound of his voice is given an added eeriness by his fondness for oddly crooked rhythms and lyrical themes of heartbreak and longing for home. This collection also includes what may be the definitive performance of the bluegrass gospel classic “Heaven.”

– Rick Anderson