BITTER SWEET, Ky. — During a recent venture into my basement I found a treasure among the old televisions I haven’t gotten rid of and the mountain of boxes I have yet to unpack after we moved – seven years ago.

Oh and there’s the makeshift indoor archery range. I told my wife I would use arrows with rubber stoppers. The treasure I found was an old Nat King Cole album my parents bought years and years ago. While most of us remember him as a jazz musician; he, like many other popular singers in the Cole era, recorded some tunes with a country flavor. Cole recorded a whole album that contained many “country” songs titled Ramblin’ Rose.

It would become my favorite as a child mostly because of the velvety voice of King and that country sound I had already grown to love. The combination was unbeatable.

The title song became a No. 1 single on the Billboard Easy Listening chart in 1962 and would appear on the country charts later when recorded by country stars Johnny Lee and Hank Snow.

The album also contained several cover songs that had been recorded by some of the biggest country starts of the 1950s including the Hank Williams hit Your Cheatin Heart, the Jim Reaves hit He’ll Have to Go, and the song that made Claude King a star call Wolverton Mountain.

But one of my favorites on this collection is a song called Twilight on the Trail. This tranquil melody paints a picture of the old-time cowboy living under the stars. It still has the ability to slow me down and make me feel relaxed.

Isn’t it great when you find a song that can give you a sense of peace and quiet? This whole album does that for me.

In addition to the country hits, there are also some very traditional American folk-type tunes contained on this release including Skip to My Lou, When You’re Smiling and Goodnight Irene, Goodnight. This album just makes me feel good. After listening to it several times – since finding it in the basement – I realized I remembered most of the words. It took me to a time when the world seemed much more innocent, you know, before that worry bug bites you and life becomes much more complicated.

I give this treasure a big A+ not only for being so good but for making me feel so good. You can still find this collection on line and I would encourage anyone to add this to their music library because, “When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.”

Bluegrass Johnson comes from a long line of country music performers and enjoys a passion for the rhythm and melody. From the hills of Kentucky, he will offer his opinions on a variety of new country music each week.