Most listeners approaching Guthrie for the first time from more than a casual perspective will likely debate purchasing the Asch recordings or the Lomax archive recordings, a three-CD set. Both offerings are superb in their own right. The Lomax set contains some insightful banter between Lomax and Guthrie which gives you a good feel for the nature of the man and provides excellent context for the music.This set, however, covers more groud musically. And while the production quality of virtually all of Guthrie's work is lacking by today's standards, this set is arguably superior to others.If you are going to buy a Guthrie set (an indespensible part of any collection of American music) this is the best on the block.