This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
O Brother Where Art Thou? nudged bluegrass off the porch and into the mainstream back in 2000.
That it has taken the major-label music biz — usually the first folks to jump on any trend — nearly four years to compile a bluegrass box as inspired as Can’t You Hear Me Callin’ is something of a surprise. But at least it’s a pleasant one. This wide-ranging set titled after a Bill Monroe classic could just as easily be titled Americana 101, since it’s basically a comprehensive history lesson and musical tutorial of Appalachian roots music. All the essential names, songs and banjo licks are here: Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys serenading us with Blue Moon of Kentucky, The Stanley Brothers and their Clinch Mountain Boys keening the high lonesome I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow, The Carter Family harmonizing on Keep on the Sunny Side, Flatt and Scruggs tearing lickety-split through the hairpin turns and twists of Foggy Mountain Breakdown. But what sets this set apart is the last disc, which follows the sound into the modern day with tracks by the likes of banjo jazzbo Bela Fleck, psychedelic rootsers The Byrds and even country-pop songbirds The Dixie Chicks. And thus the circle remains unbroken.
DISCS: Four.
TRACKS: 109.
YEARS COVERED: 1925 – 2002.
NEW STUFF: Aside from the contemporary cuts, there’s one previously unreleased old chestnut.
EYE CANDY: A 60-page book with a massive essay, track-by-track liner notes and plenty of pics.
DAMAGE: $55.
