Late in the evening, just about sundown...high on a hill up above the town

...Uncle Pen played the fiddle, Lordy how it would ring, you could hear it talk, and you could hear it sing...

Mike Nesmith had a hit with "Rio" later in his career, but the "Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash" album (featuring "Uncle Pen") was, for many fans and critics, a "high water mark."



It was no accident that the album cover bore a passing resemblance to John Hartford's landmark release "Areo Plain." The music proved that Nesmith had been listening as well. His earlier blend of sweet traditional country and pop now included a dash of the "nu-grass" weirdness that Hartford gave birth to on "Areo Plain."



OK, this is the place where you list your favorite, cherished, and perhaps overlooked gems.