Before everyone gets too excited about this compilation which admittedly has some classic tracks from the usual suspects (Bobbie Gentry, Allmans, Boz Scaggs, Linda Ronstadt) and pleasant surprises (Joe South's "Hush" & amazingly Cher's "I Walk On Gilded Splinters") there are also significant caveats including some dross (Link Wray way, way past his prime & the pre-Allman Duane & Gregg tracks aren't much to write home about) and some misfiring compiler choices (notably the Anglophilic Big Star who stick out like a sore thumb, post aircrash [!] Lynyrd Skynryd and what is Johnny Cash doing here with a Tim Hardin song?!?). The biggest problem I have though is with the essential omissions considering how relatively few tracks there are on each CD; where is the Marshall Tucker Band [South Carolina] who mixed jazzy flute'n'sax into the southern rock template, ZZ Top [Texas], Tom Petty [Florida], JJ Cale [Oklahoma], and perhaps most of all a decent Lynyrd Skynryd track from their peak period (something like "Ballad of Curtis Loew"?). As ever with Soul Jazz a germ of a really good idea somewhat botched in execution resulting in a bit of a curate's egg; some great stuff yes but also some make-weights and an awful lot missing. Perhaps licensing issues precluded alot of the potentially interesting stuff making the cut but to pass off blatantly inferior stuff like the Link Wray and Johnny Cash tracks as being the "best-of-the-best" (which is what you'd want from a 'sampler' type compilation like this) isn't too smart.