In many ways the music industry in Nashville is a lot like a factory. The songwriter writes a tune. The song gets pitched. The song gets picked up for use on a record. Hired musicians come in to record album. The star comes in, sometimes hearing song for very first time, and records vocals. A separate set of musicians is hired for the tour. The Star goes out on road and performs song he or she recently recorded. Clint Black breaks the Nashville mold a little bit. Of the major country artists to emerge in recent years, Black earns the distinction of being the only one to write or co-write all his hit singles. If that weren't enough, he strums and picks his Gibson flat top on the records as well. The fruit of Black's labor since the late '80s is Clint Black The Greatest Hits. Twelve classic Clint tunes and four new ones make up a collection that might be a good starting point for those unfamiliar with Black's work. Opening with the newly-penned "Like The Rain," the music introduces itself in a low-key fashion, with an air of anticipation. Clint's clear, naked but powerful voice is at first accompanied by sparse acoustic guitar, but orchestration is gradually pieced together until the huge, almost hard-rock-sounding drums kick in. From that point on, the listener is taken for a musical roller-coaster ride. Black's "young" country is marked by an almost universal accessibility. Lyrics aren't too simple, nor too pretentious. The sound is country flavored, but not so much a twang fest that it would turn off a typical fan of classic rock. He can croon on a ballad such as "A Bad Goodbye," or wail on a rocker like "Summer's Comin," yet do the classic honky tonkin', cryin'-in-a-beer torch song like "Burn One Down." Black is a rare artist who can be commercial and middle-of-the-road in an arty sort of way. Instrumental highlights include Black's extended harmonica intro on "State of Mind." Dann Huff's mind-boggling solo on "Summer's Comin'" makes you want to quit and forget you ever even tried to play guitar. This reviewer could have done without a live version of "Desperado," however. The collection is a tribute to Black's songwriting prowess, and ending it with a cover tune seems to undermine the merit of Black's own work. All in all this collection, as with any other greatest hits collection, is a little pointless for those who have been longtime fans and have all the albums already. But for new fans of Black, or rock fans interested in adding a little country to their personal rotation of CDs, this is a worthwhile purchase.