** Tom Rush

THE VERY BEST OF TOM RUSH: NO REGRETS

(Columbia)

Tom Rush never had hits per se, so this overview tries to do its job by combining signature songs with tunes that allegedly illustrate stylistic changes in the veteran folkie's sound. Distilling a 30-year career dotted with several so-so records, it works as often as it doesn't.

As a principal of the Cambridge folk-blues scene, Rush cut many authoritative performances; the disc's early-'60s stock -- from the Josh White strumming of "San Francisco Bay Blues" to the railroad ramble of "Panama Limited" -- remains vibrant. Source material changed from the black South to the Caucasian West around '67 or '68, and his take on Joni Mitchell's "Urge for Going" is terrific because it folds aura into arrangement. That's why the "No Regrets" included here (not the definitive Elektra version) is such a dud: grandiose backgrounds have always been the singer's foe. Rush himself chose the anthology's tracks, but instead of tripe like "Kids These Days" and "Ladies Love Outlaws," I would have opted for overlooked gems such as "Jazzman" or "Starlight."

The album falters right around the time Rush's career did. The post-Columbia tracks here are trivial, and that includes the lovely, newly recorded "River Song." On this comp, cringes and goosebumps run neck and neck.

-- Jim Macnie