The United Artists Collection by Gordon Lightfoot (CD, Jul-1996, 2 Discs, EMI Records USA)

I had always enjoyed Gord's commercial hits from the 70s but was looking to expand on what I had heard from him by discovering his roots - his songwriting before he became a breakout star. This 2 cd compilation of 5 of his early recordings seemed to fit that need. I was blown away! Beautiful. There were stripped-down versions of songs you may have heard from "Gord's Gold" which were just as lovely and poignant. But fully 80% of the rest of the songs were new to me and did not disappoint. Some have called him the "Canadian Bob Dylan" and after digesting these seminal recordings I believe one can assuredly say that there is validity to that statement: introspective, a wordsmith with heart, feelings and soul, a tunesmith of equal caliber, a storyteller you can relate to and seemingly a keenly aware social critic. Of all the cds I bought in 2006 this was by far the biggest surprise and most welcome addition to my collection.