The double-disc set Molly O'Day & the Cumberland Mountain Folks contains all 36 tracks that O'Day recorded for Columbia Records between 1946 and 1951. O'Day was one of the most important female country singers of the '40s, but she never attained the stardom she deserved because she retired from the business in 1951. Nevertheless, her music has come to be regarded as some of the finest of her era, especially considering how she could make traditional mountain music, both sacred and secular, come alive. Molly O'Day & the Cumberland Mountain Folks preserves her classic sides in a classy fashion, and any musicologist or dedicated fan of string bands needs the compilation in their collection.