Boz Scagss

He didn't go so far as to call it Silk Degrees II, but Dig is as close as Boz Scaggs is likely to come to recording the sequel to his most commercially successful and, for many, best-loved record (unless you count 1977's underrated follow-up, Down Two Then Left). Reunited after all these years with Silk Degrees collaborator David Paich, Scaggs makes a successful return to the blue-eyed soul of his late-'70s works on tracks such as "Desire" and "Thanks to You," the latter featuring tastefully muted trumpet work from Roy Hargrove.

But Beautiful is an album of pop standards by Boz Scaggs, released in 2003. An assured, logical next step in an enduring musical career, But Beautiful signals the arrival of an important new voice in the domain of the great American songbook. It features Scaggs performing standards such as Sophisticated Lady, and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered with the classic jazz quartet that includes pianist and arranger Paul Nagel and bright new star from the San Francisco jazz scene, saxophonist Eric Crystal. But Beautiful reached number one on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart in 2004.

Boz Scaggs has had a long and varied career, playing blues, singing soul music, recording hits with smooth grooves, and taking his time with his temperamental muse. The Essential Boz Scaggs features 32 songs that tell the story of his solo career. It starts, after his stint in the Steve Miller Band, with his Atlantic Records self-titled debut album. Duane Allman fires up “Loan Me a Dime” with his trademark guitar work. Scaggs moved to Columbia Records, where he released a number of fine albums, culminating with the sleek, sophisticated grooves of Silk Degrees, provided by the band that would become Toto. Six tracks appear here, including the hits “Lowdown,” “Lido Shuffle,” and “Harbor Lights.”

On Memphis, Boz Scaggs pays tribute to the city's magnificent soul tradition, Al Green, and producer Willie Mitchell and his Royal Recordings studio, whose location and personnel were used to cut it in three days. Produced by drummer Steve Jordan, the core band includes the singer and Ray Parker, Jr. on guitars, and bassist Willie Weeks, augmented by the Royal Horns & Strings, a small backing chorus, sidemen, and guests. Green's influence is celebrated in the opener, Scaggs' "Gone Baby Gone." Its wafting B-3, Rhodes, fluid electric guitars, and a tight backbeat underscore his baritone croon to excellent effect. If there were doubts about the quality of his voice at this juncture, they're immediately dispelled when his sweet falsetto emerges. In his cover of Green's "So Good to Be Here," Scaggs references him but digs deeper into his own trick bag with more rounded, earthier highlights.

On this prime collection of R&B and blues songs and influences from Boz Scaggs' youth – and four new yet classic-sounding self-penned originals – the blue-eyed soulman eschews the slick production values of his pop chart-toppers such as "Lido" and "Lowdown," instead getting way down and his hands dirty with the honest blood, sweat, and tears of the real down-home blues. Packing in tow drummer Jim Keltner, guitarist Fred Tackett (from Little Feat), and slow-burning, soulful horn arrangements by Willie Mitchell, one of the founding fathers of Memphis soul (and composer of Come On Home's title track), Scaggs' covers of songs originally composed and performed by such legends as Jimmy Reed ("Found Love"), T-Bone Walker (the legendary "T-Bone Shuffle"), Sonny Boy Williamson ("Early in the Morning") and Bobby "Blue" Bland (the thunderous "Ask Me 'Bout Nothing (But the Blues)"), along with "It All Went Down the Drain" (Earl King), and the smoldering "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)" (David Porter with Isaac Hayes), are absolutely impossible to resist. Come On Home is a genuine musical treasure.

This Sony UK entry in the Original Albums Classics series contains five Boz Scaggs recordings; one of which is a true classic, two more which should be, and two more middling albums. These are the remastered versions of these recordings. The inarguable standout in the pack is the legendary Silk Degrees album from 1976, which includes, as bonus cuts, three live versions of tunes on the album’s track list: “What Can I Say,” It’s Over,” and “Jump Street.” Two very important recordings in Scaggs’ catalog that are included here both preceded Silk Degrees: Moments, issued in 1971, reveals (whether he admits it or not) Van Morrison’s influence on the singer and songwriter…