The two volumes of
Mermaid Avenue, released in 1998 and 2000 and named after the New York street where legendary folk artist
Woody Guthrie lived in the 1940s, were collaborations between cult American alt-country/avant-garde rockers
Wilco and revered British protest singer
Billy Bragg, on which they set to music previously unreleased lyrics by
Guthrie. This exhaustive four-disc set features both releases together with a whole new album of previously unreleased songs and the documentary Man in the Sand, which chronicles the project. ~ John D. Buchanan