In the mid-50's, Mr. Elliott traveled all over the country busking and collecting blues and early country songs.
They gave chords a ringing punch and bass runs a penetrating snap: Maybelle Carter played an archtop on early country tunes like "Wildwood Flower".
In January he recorded an album of blues-inflected early country tunes with a group of top Nashville players for Columbia Records, to be released in the spring.
In her early country-pop recordings, Ms. Lang played the role of an avant-garde cowgirl with a broad, knowing wink.
Growing up in rural northeastern Alabama, the Loudermilk brothers were exposed to a variety of early country music influences, including the Carter Family, Charlie and Bill Monroe, and the Blue Sky Boys, as well as to shape-note hymnal singing.
Bill Monroe's voice and the Monroe Brothers' music in general have a bluesiness, a kinship with Southern black musical feeling, that's plainly audible in most early country music.
The town was the home of several distinguished early country musicians, notably the singer and banjo player Dock Boggs, a distant relative for whom Jack worked as a driver in the older man's later years.
When Rounder's collection is fully released -- the remaining CD's will appear this fall and next year -- one of the high points of early country music will no longer be a secret.
Valerie June Carter Cash was born into the Carter Family, the most important of the early country music groups, and one that helped changed it from a string-based music to a vocal music.
