Never deliberately flashy,
Don Gibson had an unerring ability to take complex emotions and turn them into deceptively simple-sounding songs, and as any songwriter knows, that's far from an easy trick to pull off, but
Gibson did it time and time again. Unassuming to a fault, his best songs like "Sweet Dreams" (a hit initially for
Faron Young in 1955 but ultimately defined a few years later by
Patsy Cline's version), "Oh Lonesome Me" (slowed down, a key track on
Neil Young's
After the Gold Rush album), and "I Can't Stop Loving You" (covered by countless artists, but most notably by
Ray Charles) are models of graceful construction (amazingly, the latter two songs were written by
Gibson in a trailer park on the exact same afternoon). Of these, only 1958's "Oh Lonesome Me" is absent from this generous and interesting set that collects several
Gibson hits recorded between 1956 and 1974 and adds four bonus tracks each by
Gibson's early groups
the Sons of the Soil (1949) and
Don Gibson & His King Cotton Kingfolks (1950).