OK - first this admission: I consider myself a longtime music fan but I was totally unfamiliar with JJ Cale until recently. For years I confused JJ Cale with John Cale who played with the Velvet Underground and decided I didn't need hear John Cale playing solo. Yes, I have deprived myself of years of some of the best American music produced in the last 35 years. I finally introduced myself to JJ Cale through "Road to Escondido" and then bought "To Tulsa and Back."

This is a very nice 3-CD set of great music spanning over 30 years of well-produced guitar-centered Americana. The music here is from the following albums:

1972 Naturally (6 songs)

1972 Really (3)

1974 Okie (4)

1976 Troubadour (5)

1979 Five (5)

1981 Shades (3)

1982 Grasshopper (5)

1983 #8 (4)

1990 Travel-Log (2)

1992 Number 10 (2)

1994 Closer to You (1)

1996 Guitar Man (2)

1997 Anyway the Wind Blosw (All 6 of the 'previously unrelased' tracks!)

2004 To Tulsa and Back (2)

Includes 7 exclusive live tracks from the Dutch 2 Meter Sessie radio show and 3 live concert tracks from the mid-1990's.

I'm not an audiophile so I won't comment on the audio quality but my the audio is crisp and clean throughout so my guess is that great care was taken in remastering this material.

Hopefully, this will be widely available in the States soon. But don't wait - your will not be disappointed with this collection.

I saw JJ Cale perform in a Lafayette, Louisiana roadhouse in 1977. He had his typical four days of stubble, looking like he just woke up. His guitar matched him: clearly an instrument he had modified with wires hanging out of the back. That performance made a lasting impression. I purchased the three or four available albums and played them until the end of my turntable days. This set fills the gap in my CD collection with all of those great songs and more. It really takes me back. Certainly a worthwhile purchase.

The majority of Cale's CD catalog were all derived from old LP-EQ'd masters and were never brought properly into the digital world.

Things improved with the release of the 1997, 2CD, 50-track

, which offered the first remasters of Cale's material.

However, from an audio-quality standpoint, this 60-track, 3CD Collected set supercedes Anthology for the best-in-class-audio mark. With proper mastering, it's actually rather stunning just how much additional fidelity emerges from these decades-old recordings.

From a material standpoint, Anthology has 16 tracks which do not appear on Collected, so if you already own that set, it's worth holding on to.

The sixty remastered tracks on Collected only represent approximately one-third of Cale's recorded studio output. After listening to this set, one can only hope that someday someone will finish the job.

I've been listening to J.J. since the release of Troubadour in 1976. I've got all of his works on disc & many on vinyl. The quality of the remastering on this triple set is VERY,VERY GOOD, worth the price of just one disc! Don't even hesitate on this one! ANY Cale fan truly deserves to hear this set. I am SO glad I purchased this set. And J.J.....Thank You very much for sharing some of the world's BEST MUSIC!!!

J.J. Cale has a style that begs immitation,truly classic. He combines Blues,Rock & Roll and Country and creates a JJ omelet that is worth more than one helping