I had a very small part in putting this collection together, so I’m going to be slightly biased here. Nevertheless, this CD is a cracker. Heartbreak, steel guitars, fiddles, cheating women, drinking, trucks, songs about mom, dad, little sister and Hank Williams—what more can you ask from a country CD? Passion, sorrow, anger, it’s all here. Spanning over four decades, the highlights here are many. The earliest track is by Cajun legend Adam Hebert, whose “Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone” will reduce anyone with a pulse to a puddle on the floor in two verses. Ditto the recently recorded “Back In His Arms Again” by Pierre Part’s Don Rich. Bayou LaFourche will be glad to know Tommy Warren’s 1978 classic “Offshore Blues” is finally available again, and the underrated Al Terry is finally digital, with the inclusion of the telling “Roughneck Blues.” Jin’s first pure C&W artist, Houma’s Johnny Webb, has two nice weepers.

I’m not a big country fan, and I wouldn’t know a Dixie Chick if one moved next door to me, But this is really phenomenal stuff, and it exposes an overlooked element of the music of this great state.