40 Odd Years (4 CD/1 DVD)

40 Odd Years into an exceptionally prolific and storied career, Loudon Wainwright III is being celebrated with an aptly named career-spanning 4-CD/1-DVD box set, including a 40-page book, with an essay by renowned journalist/author David Wild and an introduction by filmmaker and box set co-producer Judd Apatow.

40 Odd Years features songs from throughout Wainwright s career, including works of brilliance such as "The Man Who Couldn t Cry" from 1973's Attempted Mustache, which Johnny Cash would record with producer Rick Rubin decades later, to the genuinely weird "Dead Skunk," which became a #16 pop hit and thus a true novelty in the Wainwright canon, to highlights from his most recent projects, including cuts from the GrammyR-winning album High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project. The 3-hour-plus DVD includes an extremely rare documentary made for Dutch television entitled One Man Guy, numerous TV appearances (for the BBC, Saturday Night Live, Austin City Limits and others), as well as previously unreleased concert performances.

The New York-born Grammy-winning songwriter has traveled a remarkable path. Discovered by Atlantic s Nesuhi Ertegun and John Hammond, Sr., the Columbia A&R man who had already signed Bob Dylan and would soon sign Bruce Springsteen, Wainwright established his literary yet utterly unpretentious take on the grand folk music tradition right from the start. He also has a parallel career as an actor, which credits include M*A*S*H, Undeclared, Jacknife, 28 Days, Big Fish, The Aviator, Elizabethtown, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up.

Price: $59.98

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