The Boxed Set, A Holiday Tradition -- Part One

The holidaze are here again and another round of box sets are being swept up and surveyed for holiday giving. Since the mid-80s, when the CD was introduced, box sets have been a mainstay of year-end record business. Even in today's down music economy, box sets have continued to be a profitable niche. Rather than a survey of this year's sets (you've probably read enough about the complete Beatles boxes, mono and stereo) here's a quick peek at some boxes from the past which will certainly make a fellow music lover happy.

Bear Family is a German label that specializes in immaculately-produced career overviews. Two important sets from their vast catalogue are Flatt & Scruggs 1948-1959 and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys' San Antonio Rose.

While Bill Monroe stands as the primary architect of bluegrass, the music of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs in this box still stands as the blueprint most bluegrass bands have followed ever since. Banjo instrumentals such as "Flint Hill Special" and "Earl's Breakdown", cornerstones of the music, are here in their original incarnations. Lester Flatt sings honky tonk classics like "I'm Gonna Sleep With One Eye Open" alongside gospel chesnuts like "Preachin', Prayin', Singin'". If you could only own one box to represent the essence of the style, THIS is the one.

Fiddler Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys are the greatest band the country/jazz hybrid known as Western Swing has ever known. San Antonio Rose captures all of their most important studio sides recorded between 1937 and 1948. Wills started out absorbing as much black music as white country, and by the late 1930s he evolved into the ringleader of one of the wildest batch of virtuoso musicians ever wrangled together. Nearly all of them are here, performing on the records that made Wills famous. The honeyed vocals of Tommy Duncan, guitarist Eldon Shamblin, steel masters Leon McAuliffe, Noel Boggs and Herb Remington are at the center of the Playboys' sound. It's a staggering roster of talent, heard in both small and big band settings all showcased on 11 CDS with a DVD and hardback book thrown in for good measure.