CMH Records doesn't have a stellar reputation among bluegrass aficionados since the label cranks out schlock like the Pickin' On series at a frantic pace.
Wow That's What I Call Bluegrass is a decent offering although it, too, has several shortcomings. First, it is billed as a "fantastic" introduction to bluegrass music, but it contains none of the seminal recordings that best represent the genre. It is hard to say exactly what it does contain, in fact, since the booklet reveals nothing about the music beyond the names of the artists and the song titles. Some of the tracks are live recordings of apparently recent vintage, while others are late-career studio cuts by veteran performers, most if not all of which are drawn from other CMH releases.
The Nashville Superpickers, essentially the CMH house band, provide instrumental support on several tracks, and a few cuts include introductions by an MC. A number of bluegrass stalwarts are represented --
Lester Flatt,
Don Reno,
the Osborne Brothers,
Jim & Jesse, and
Mac Wiseman -- and the performance quality is generally high. The program isn't entirely traditional -- it is a matter for debate whether anyone needs to hear a bluegrass version of
U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," but
Brent Truitt's instrumental rendition of "Paint It Black" works well.
Wow That's What I Call Bluegrass is essentially a label sampler geared toward people who don't know anything about bluegrass, an audience that will tend to find it perfectly agreeable.