...but for a period in the late '80s, The Trinity Sessions album never wandered too far from my turntable.

Lovely record.

Start there.

is one of the most beautiful records ever. The rest of their catalogue is actually a lot more muscular, though just as melodic and beautiful.

I've a particular soft spot for their album Black Eyed Man which has my favourite song by them A Horse In The Country. Gorgeous tune.

but never got into it. Then picked up Caution Horses very cheap and quickly fell in love with them. Brilliant band.
If pushed would still go for Caution Horses as my favourite.

but would add the live 200 More Miles as a great sampler (great memories for me as I was at the Albert Hall gig from which some of this was taken).
Michael Timmins may be the most underrated songwriter I know of.

I think both the original and Revisited are well worth investing in. Revisited has the benefit of guest artists Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt and Natalie Merchant plus you get a DVD as well.
In The Time Before Llamas, which is a collection of BBC sessions is worth a listen to as an alternative Best Of.
Im rather keen on the Open CD as well.

My biggest regret on the Wine, women and song tour that you recommended was that i didn't buy the new Matraca Berg album thinking that it would eventually be released in this country. Doesn't appear that will happen anytime soon and her website is not updated on a regular basis. When you have a minute to check can you let me know what label and catalogue number it is because i will get one of my American friends to try and track it down for me. Cheers.

is Caution Horses over Trinity Sessions, with Black Eyed Man also a strong contender.

Love Margo's voice and was always disappointed they never got the acclaim they deserved.

Ok, that may not be a huge amount of help, but I've got the catalogue and there's not a clunker in there.

There's been a lot of change over the years, and they're probably no longer the band most imagine them to be, given the general view of them ossified around Caution Horses. But they're still quite exceptional. As noted above, Michael Timmins is a wonderful songwriter, criminally underrated but the rest of the band is right on the money.

Whites Off Earth Now is the debut, very much in the mould of the Trinity Session, but bluesier. Trinity is the famous one, their reading of the Great American songbook in a lot of ways plus a few great originals. Caution Horses built on that but is much more countrified, then Black Eyed Man carried on that country feel, but added a more more southern rock feel to it.

Pale Sun Crescent Moon is one of their more "difficult" albums, kind of swampy Americana with a few bits of light relief. Lay It Down has a touch of REM about it, then Miles From Our Home is a gorgeous, shimmering record, jangly, psychedelic in places, very much a Byrds and Beatles feel.

They went independent after that with a Rarities collection that is worth seeking out, followed by Open which is much more guitar driven than anything else they'd done. Some great playing on there. One Soul Now is a little like Pale Sun in that it's quite an opaque record, not always easy to get through the layers, but with a couple of pop gems on there as well.

Early 21st Century Blues was mostly covers again, an anti-war record with some killer stuff on it.

Most recent record was a couple of years back, At The End Of Paths Taken. Covered all sorts of bases, and I think it's probably the best record of their career. Extraordinary piece of work.

Sweet Jane from the Trinity Sessions was playing in the background on this week's True Blood.

'lost my driving wheel' is a very fine track

saw them at the free trade hall, manchester in 1991-very good live

Listen to their version of this from the Return of the Grievous Angel tribute to Gram Parsons.

Sublime.

It's the only thing I own by them, keep meaning to pick up some more but never seem to get round to it, no reflection on the band, just my (lacking) finances and the ever lengthening list of 'to buy's' (never seems to get shorter no matter how much I buy).

It's a beautiful album that I bought years ago and still return to often. Have to check my bank balance and take a squint at amazon.

And must add the GP tribute mentioned by poolhallrichard to my list, sounds interesting...