First, if you are determined to buy a Willie Nelson box set, this is the one to get. It has most of his biggest hits and is a good value.

That said, I really can't recommend this set. The problem is, Willie Nelson, perhaps more than any other artist, puts together some truly incredible concept albums. With this set, you might get one or two of the big hits from each album, but you won't get the mood or tone of the overall project. What you miss is the best part of Willie Nelson.

Though it is certainly more expensive, I recommend that you buy Willie albums individually. Here is just a little of what you'd miss if you get this set instead:

This set starts in 1975 with a couple of tracks from the "Red Headed Stranger" album. Before that, Willie spent several years with RCA. While Chet Atkins and company could never figure out how to produce Willie Nelson, this was still a very productive time. Despite limited recording success, he was one of Nashville's most prodigous songwriters. All of that occurred before the "Red..." breakthrough. Also during that time was Willie's western swing influenced "Shotgun Willie" album, one of his better ones. "Red Headed Stranger" itself is Willie's best known concept album. It's about a preacher in the wild west who kills his cheating wife and manages to find redemption by the end of the album. "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain" is a great song, one of his best, but if you don't hear the whole album, you miss so much.

Though you wouldn't know it from radio airplay, Willie has done some of his best work AFTER this set was produced. "Still is Still Moving to Me", the last song in this set, is from his "Across the Borderline" album. That one was something of a comeback album, after several years of productive, but less inspiring work. It included a duet with Bob Dylan, covers of Paul Simon and Lyle Lovett songs and new ones from Willie himself. It has only gotten better from there. Both "Teatro" and "Spirit" were great concept albums. "Night and Day" was the first all-instrumental album of his career, and then you have "Milk Cow Blues" which paired Willie with some outstanding blues artists on some of his and their songs. And his latest album, "The Rainbow Connection" is an interesting project in itself. It started out as a children's album, but diverged from there and it includes our first chance to hear Willie's daughter Amy sing.

In short, this is a very good "Greatest Hits" style set. The problem is Willie's music really doesn't fit that method. For the real Willie Nelson, pick up his individual albums one by one. You won't be sorry.

Don't be fooled--this is not a career-spanning retrospective. There is nothing here from his RCA years when he made a name for himself as one of the most prolific songwriters in Nashville throughout the sixties. Instead this box set covers the Columbia years which includes both his critical and commercial peaks.

This 3-CD set starts with Willie Nelson's 1975 release Red Headed Stranger (a concept album that owes as much to the Who's Tommy as it does to C&W) and the single "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," which was both a country and pop hit.

For the next quarter century, Nelson would wear the mantle of country "outlaw," but the tag didn't always fit. In 1978 he'd release Stardust, a collection of standards, including "Georgia on My Mind" and Blue Skies."

Disc-2 features 20 duets with everyone from Ray Price and Webb Pierce to Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Disc-3 covers the most recent decade of the collection (1983-93).

This past summer I saw Willie Nelson in concert at the state fair. It was terrific. This icon of American music is an excellent songwriter, an emotionally charged singer, and his gut-string guitar leads are amazing. Like many of my CD purchases, this box set allows me to get 60 songs at a reasonable price without having to replace all my vinyl LPs and cassettes. RECOMMENDED

As a die hard Willie Nelson fan, I own about 20 of this great artist's albums. Revolutions of Time is an excellent--dare I say the best--compilation of Willie's remarkable songwriting and performing achievements that span over four decades. Attempting to summarize Willie's remarkable career is a difficult, albeit impossible, task. Revolutions of Time does by far the best job of achieving this goal that I have ever seen.

I am not a big fan of country music, but this box set is much more than Country! When I was in college, I had a roommate who made me listen to this music. Discovering the sound of Willie Nelson was one of the most valuable things I learned there. Willie Nelson has a sound that is at the heart of every American. Both somber and triumphant, Nelson writes and sings the songs of all those who have been overlooked, those who have built our great nation. If you like Bob Dylan(and I LOVE Dylan), this box set will reveal another hero for the forgotten. Buy it NOW!

This is an excellent, comprehensive collection of probably the best music Willie has recorded in his long career--a good starter kit for those new to his music. The fat book included is a nice bonus. I've kept these three CDs in my stereo since I bought the box set months ago.