Vanguard's The Best of the Darlin' Boys is a misleading collection of nine studio tracks culled from the Dillards' last two studio albums, Let It Fly (1991) and Take Me Along for the Ride (1992). While the Rodney Dillard-led country-rock of the era wasn't dreadful (Let It Fly was one of the group's stronger overall releases), the compilers chose to slap a photo of the fictional Darlin' Boys (who were portrayed by the Dillards on The Andy Griffith Show) on the front cover, rendering this package -- which features none of the vintage bluegrass that the picture implies -- into pure, unfiltered snake oil. ~ James Christopher Monger