The Carter Family

The first family in country music.

Information: Wikipedia
Suggested first purchase/best of: Can the Circle Be Unbroken? Country Music's First Family

Can the Circle Be Unbroken? Country Music's First Family (2000) -- This is the Carter Family singing some of their biggest hits from recordings from 1935 and 1940. It's difficult to choose a "best of" for this group. If you want everything they've done, you can spend 300 bucks and get the 12 CD collection In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain. Wildwood Flower is also another good collection that is similar to this one. Rounder also puts out a collection of all their stuff, 16 songs at a time, if you want to slowly collect. This is also a good place to start; you can go from here to decide if you really need hundreds of recordings.