North Carolina's Doc Watson is considered one of country music's most influential guitar players. His blend of Appalachian folk, blues, country, gospel and bluegrass first gained steam nationally during a 1963 Newport Folk Festival appearance, and this anthology of instrumentals begins with "Black Mountain Rag" from his self-titled debut record from the following year. Foundation borrows 16 tracks from 11 albums--nearly 35 years' worth of material--from his earliest recordings for Vanguard through the 1970s and 1980s duets with his late son Merle (who accompanies on banjo and guitar). Doc's voice serves only as an introduction to several of the collection's live numbers, letting his strings do the talking where it counts: on cap-tipping covers of songs by John D Loudermilk, Maybelle Carter and Molly O'Day, and on the nearly half-dozen rags that best display Doc's trademark flat-picking frenzy. --Scott Holter