Vanguard's
The Best of the Darlin' Boys is a misleading collection of nine studio tracks culled from
the Dillards' last two studio albums,
Let It Fly (1991) and
Take Me Along for the Ride (1992). While the
Rodney Dillard-led country-rock of the era wasn't dreadful (
Let It Fly was one of the group's stronger overall releases), the compilers chose to slap a photo of the fictional Darlin' Boys (who were portrayed by
the Dillards on The Andy Griffith Show) on the front cover, rendering this package -- which features none of the vintage bluegrass that the picture implies -- into pure, unfiltered snake oil. ~ James Christopher Monger