by Jim Smith
Blake's best album, and one of the finest bluegrass albums of the '70s. &Church St. Blues& and &Slow Train Through Georgia& are great originals that demonstrate Blake's natural ease with a sung ballad, while the fabulous medleys &Sleepy Eyed Joe/Indian Creek& and &Fiddler's Dram/Whiskey Before Breakfast& show off the graceful flat-picking that made him famous. All told, there have been many albums in the folk idiom featuring many a guitar virtuoso, but very few achieve such a mix of relaxed subtlety and eye-popping virtuosity, and Whiskey Before Breakfast will perhaps stand as the greatest achievement by this master picker.