Spanning five decades, this three-CD box set features a lot of familiar material as well as some rare and previously unreleased tracks. The set begins with Guy’s earliest track, “The Way You Treat Me,” from 1957, which was recorded in Baton Rouge. Previously only available on a Japanese import LP, the track shows Guy very much under the spell of New Orleans’ Guitar Slim. Slim’s influence can also be heard on early 1960s Chicago tracks like “Stone Crazy” and “Let Me Love You Baby,” but under producer Willie Dixon’s tutelage, Guy developed his own style. A couple solid tracks are sampled from Junior Wells’ landmark 1965 LP Hoodoo Man Blues, demonstrating Guy could also play the role of accompanist, something he did for several Chess recording artists).

The title track comes from a 1968 Vanguard LP that shows Guy had by then fully developed his guitar style, choking off rapid notes below the 12th fret of his ’59 Stratocaster. A couple of 1970s tracks find Guy in the company of the rock elite including Eric Clapton, and the two rock on “T-Bone Shuffle.” Disc two is a sampling of 1990s Silvertone releases. It’s notable that Guy only authored one song on this disc, “Damn Right I Got The Blues.” There are some well-chosen covers like “Miss Ann” and “You’re Mind Is On Vacation,” but do we need another version “Mustang Sally?” Disc three brings us into the 21st Century with several tracks coming from the experimental Sweet Tea album, which is basically a Fat Possum album. Many people like the Fat Possum style of blues; I, however, think it’s caterwaul. Fortunately, there’s also a handful of high quality acoustic tracks highlighted by Guy’s interpretation of “Crawling Kingsnake.”

I’d have liked to have more early material here because several of Guy’s best albums (Buddy and the Juniors, and Left My Blues In San Francisco) are completely overlooked, but that could be a licensing issue. Still in all, this is an overdue overview of one of the most important blues artists of the last century.