Merle Travis is perhaps best remembered as the writer of the coal-miner's lament, "Sixteen Tons," but in his late-40's heyday, he was one of the kings of the Los Angeles country music scene. His supercharged two-finger guitar picking, his witty and sophisticated lyrics, and his easy-going vocal style are just the beginning. To hear some tell it, he was the hillbilly as renaissance genius: an accomplished artist, writer, Guy Movie actor and instrument designer; a world-class drunken bastard.

But at its root it's the guitar playing that is the key to his enduring reputation. He learned his style of playing (he called it "thumb-style") from two coal-mining neighbors of his in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. He made his way to Los Angeles, where there were thousands of Southerners and Texans who moved there in search of work during the depression and war years. These migrants created a huge demand for recordings of the sounds of their old hometowns. Merle Travis, Bob Wills and the Whippoorwills were ready to fill that need.

One of the most striking things about listening to Sweet Temptation today is the unusual instrumentation, featuring accordion and muted trumpet playing obligato on more than half the tracks of this compilation. If you're a listener of taste and discernment, I don't have to tell you how much ass that kicks. The next thing you'll notice are the lyrics. Whether he's giving a combination spelling and semiotics lesson ("You take a K and an E/and an N and a T/and a U and a C-K-Y/That spells 'Kentucky'/but it means 'paradise.'), or discoursing on the charm of Rubenesque ladies ("she keeps me warm in the winter/shady in the summertime/that's what I love about that fat gal of mine."), there's always the charming wit.

In contrast to the smooth swing-influenced ensemble sound of his early singles, his most famous song, "Sixteen Tons," features a stark voice and solo guitar sound, interrupted to provide the "back story" of how a miner would "get so in debt to the company he's working for that he'd go for years without being paid one red cent of honest to goodness money . . . but even that's got a bright side." What that bright side may be is not explained, but we do get to hear his picking style unobscured by a band, and the power and immediacy of it is arresting. There's more of this later on the instrumentals "Cannonball Rag" and the "I'll See You In My Dreams," both of which are still favorites of his guitar-playing disciples.

"Sweet Temptation" is a great collection that's recommended to anyone who likes the jazzier side of classic country music.