A wonderful collection of superlative human music, on which Jesse Lee Kincaid’s “She Sang Hymns Out Of Tune” is thankfully rescued from the circus mind of Harry Nilsson. Now don’t get me wrong here, I love Nilsson just as much as the next guy who loves Nilsson, probably more actually, but that particular song totally deserves the country treatment (Heart And Flowers also tackled it on their second album), and truly shines above everything else when sung by Herb Pedersen, who once stood in for Earl Scruggs, playing with Lester Flatt in Nashville, and joined the Dillards in 1968 as a replacement for Doug Dillard, who was leaving the band to tour with the Byrds and play with Gene Clark. If you’re not so familiar with the Dillards, they’re actually quite comparable to the Byrds, albeit with a bluegrass twist. This 18 song compilation includes material drawn from the Wheatstraw Suite (1968) and Copperfields (1969) albums, excellent songs such as “Nobody Knows”, “Pictures” (written in the style of Gene Clark), the amusing “The Biggest Whatever”, the Beatles’ “I’ve Just Seen A Face”, or Eric Andersen’s “Close The Door Lightly”. With country-rock virtuosos such as Byron Berline and Buddy Emmons on board, the musicianship on these recordings is about as sophisticated as it gets when it comes to mountain music. If, like me, you enjoy the Byrds, close harmony, and music that makes you smile and feel like you’re chillaxin’ with Buddha on a weekday, you might wanna check out the Dillards.