Personnel includes: Gordon Lightfoot (vocals, guitar, piano); Red Shea (guitar, dobro); Charlie McCoy (guitar, harmonica, piano, celeste, bells); Huey McCracken, Grady Martin, Bruce Langhorne, David Rea, Jerry Shook, Chip Young, Terry Clements (guitar); Pee Wee Charles (pedal steel guitar); Ry Cooder (mandolin); Vassar Clements (fiddle); John B. Sebastian (harmonica); Hargus Robbins, Floyd Cramer (piano); Van Dyke Parks (harmonium); James Newton Howard (keyboards, synthesizer); Bill Lee, John Stockfish, Rick Haynes, Norbert Putnam (bass); Barry Keane, Kenny Buttrey (drums, percussion); Herb Lovelle, Buddy Harman, Jimmy Isbel (drums); Dave Brown, Bob Phillips (percussion); Anita Kerr Singers (background vocals).

Producers include: Art Snider, John Court, Gordon Lightfoot, John Simon, Elliot Mazer.

Compilation producers: Gordon Lightfoot, Thane Tierney.

Recorded between 1962 and 1996. Includes liner notes by Gordon Lightfoot, Nicholas Jennings and Thane Tierney.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Although the Canadian-bred Gordon Lightfoot is a virtual deity in his homeland, he has not achieved the icon status of Dylan, Neil Young, or even Paul Simon on American soil. Lightfoot has been a prolific and consistent songwriter and performer since the '60s, and his work has been covered endlessly. "If You Could Read My Mind" alone has spawned 100 different versions! Yet Lightfoot remains more a secret hero than a household name.

Rhino's 4-disc box sums up an estimable career in a deluxe package replete with chestnut favorites, rarities, and seldom-heard early efforts. Folk purists will be overjoyed with Disc 1, where Lightfoot is basically unaccompanied. The spare "Early Mornin' Rain" and "Bitter Green" are arguably more effective than their over-produced '70s counterparts. It is the '70s material included on Discs 2 and 3, however, that put Lightfoot on the map on both sides of the border. With "Sundown" and "Carefr