Various Artists – Legends Of Country Music: The Best Of Austin City Limits

In recent years, discussion about the PBS series Austin City Limits has often centered on whether the program caters too much to the kinds of already-established Nashville stars seen frequently enough on CMTNN, at the expense of promising new talent and deserving artists on the fringes of the mainstream. (Priorities seem to have refocused admirably in the current season, with the likes of Terry Allen, Whiskeytown, the Old 97’s and the late Townes Van Zandt being given their due.)

But such concern over the show’s current agenda makes it easy to forget the rich history Austin City Limits has already packed away in its vaults during the past three decades. This 15-track disc, then, is a thoroughly enjoyable reminder that some of country music’s greatest performers, several of whom are no longer with us, have left a calling card of their legacy in that homey little studio at the communications building on the University of Texas campus.

I was quite pleasantly surprised at some of the things documented here, unaware the program had been able to capture, for instance, the glory of Marty Robbins’ unforgettable “El Paso” before his death in 1982. Though ACL began just a shade too late to record Bob Wills, who died in 1975, it did manage to feature Bob Wills’ Original Texas Playboys in 1977: “San Antonio Rose” opens the album with an ideal nod to both the tradition and geography that are at the heart of the show’s appeal.

Other long-lost legends appearing here include Roy Orbison (“Only The Lonely”), Roger Miller (“King Of The Road”), and Merle Watson, who performed “Way Downtown” with his father Doc Watson in 1977. It’s another Merle who provides this disc’s most treasured moment, though: Merle Travis, in a 1977 episode taped six years before his death, delivers a charming solo rendition of his hallmark “Sixteen Tons”, altering the final verse in a humorously touching nod to Tennessee Ernie Ford.

More recently departed greats such as Faron Young, Carl Perkins and Floyd Cramer also have their moments here, each of them radiant; Cramer’s classic instrumental “Last Date”, in particular, provides a perfect conclusion to the disc. Other highlights include Buck Owens’ tearfully terrific rendition “Crying Time”, Glen Campbell smoothly crooning his way through “Gentle On My Mind”, and Loretta Lynn’s defiant declaration “You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man.”