Any bluegrass album that starts with "Rocky Top" can't go wrong. This extremely fine collection is a compilation of work by the genre's finest legends.
   A two-disc set, That's Bluegrass!, contains 40 numbers and includes the most popular of all bluegrass songs. Included is "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" and "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms," both by Lester Flatt and The Nashville Grass; "Dueling Banjos" by legendary pickers Joe Maphis and Zen Crook; "Wabash Cannonball," with Benny Martin; "John Henry" by Merle Travis; and, of course the everlasting "Orange Blossom Special," with The Stonemans.
   This album is not for the faint of heart, either, with some of the fastest fingers that ever flew a fret or picked a tune. The Osborne Brothers' "Rocky Top," the Maphis/Crook battle on "Dueling Banjos" and Maphis' "Fire On The Strings" offer some of the fastest pickin' you'll ever hear. Period.
   Much of the album is devoted to classic bluegrass, but there's some fine pickin' and strummin' on what are usually considered traditional pop songs. Don Reno and Arthur Smith deliver a wonderful rendition of Judy Garland's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow." Mac Wiseman appears with the '60's folk anthem "House of the Rising Sun," but the most interesting and beautiful cover is the Nashville Superpickers' version of the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever."
   Make sure your blood pressure's down, then grab a nice cold one and hang on, 'cause That's Bluegrass will leave you gasping for breath.

-Charlton Wiggins