Bluegrass musicians love to "jam".  They love to get together with other musicians and stretch out their own musical ideas on beloved old tunes and mesh with the ideas of others.  When the musicians in question are the best in the business, the result is magic.  The liner notes detail how this project came to be.  All the band members were headlining their own groups except for Bobby Hicks, who was playing his fabulous fiddle for Ricky Skaggs and Todd Phillips who was playing bass for project leader Tony Rice.  The songs are classics.  The arrangements are beautiful in their simplicity.  The performances are stunning.  Later projects would add Jerry Douglas on resonator guitar and Vassar Clements on fiddle - on the all-instrumental project Vassar and Bobby play stunning twin fiddles that couldn't have been more heavenly if Bill Monroe had been guiding them directly.  I won't go so far as to say that this is the greatest Bluegrass Recording of all time. It may not even be the best of the series.... but it started the "Bluegrass Albums" and it's a good'n.  If you think your bluegrass collection should number about 5 to 10 discs and this isn't one of them - you're incomplete!