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Bill Clifton has taken bluegrass music around the world, uniting folk and country music, and preserving songs and styles that might otherwise have been forgotten. Although born into a wealthy Maryland family, he always loved early country music, in particular the Carter Family and other musicians of the rural South. Starting at a time when music was mostly passed down within families, Bill Clifton realized that change was on the horizon and decided to preserve some of the early country songs in what became known as 'The Bill Clifton Song Book -150 Old Time Folk and Gospel Songs'. He did it first and he did it because it needed to be done.

In the Fifties and Sixties, Bill Clifton's warm, accessible voice linked the traditional Southern music he loved and the new musicians who were to change the music in the future. He organized the first ever bluegrass festival in Luray, Virginia, in 1961, and was a founding director for the '63 Newport Folk Festival. Most importantly, he took the music abroad. His influence on musicians and fans around the world cannot be overestimated. He lived in western Europe and in Asia, traveled eastern Europe, Australia, and Africa, doing more than anyone else to spread bluegrass and traditional country music around the world.

This 8 CD-box contains more than 225 recordings from 1954 - 1991, among them are Bill Clifton's original Blue Ridge, Starday, Decca, Kapp, and Elf recordings. Plus, as a special bonus, there's the legendary and ultra-rare Musikladen recordings with Alexis Korner, I Saw The Light. The set contains an LP-sized book including many previously unseen photographs, a biography by Rienk Janssen, and a complete discography by Richard Weize.

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