Gold: Traffic

During Traffic's initial run, the band ventured into everything from psychedelia and folk rock to funky jazz fusion. This anthology makes all the key stops along Traffic's trail for a portrait of a group that never stopped evolving. Steve Winwood was still a teen at the time of Traffic's 1967 debut album. (He had just graduated from his "Little Stevie Winwood" phase as The Spencer Davis Group's boy wonder singer/keyboardist; he did his musical growing up in public.) It's a thrill to hear Winwood's vision coming of age alongside Chris Wood's warm, soulful sax and flute and Jim Capaldi's loose-limbed drumming. Traffic's early period was distinguished by paisley-patterned psychedelia ("Paper Sun," "Hole in My Shoe"), with Wood adding dashes of folk and jazz. Sung by the soon-to-depart Dave Mason, "Feelin' Alright?" shows that the band's R&B influences weren't confined to Winwood's time with Davis. And while Traffic could turn out greasy rockers like "Rock and Roll Stew, Pts. 1 & 2," the art-rock expansiveness of "Rainmaker" and "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" exemplifies this crew's questing spirit.