Perhaps they argued about song order. They may have argued about the number of tracks. Possibly they even argued about what to drink while they were arguing. However, songwriter Tom Phillips and Allen Baekeland, bassist for the Men of Constant Sorrow (MOCS), agreed on a key point while choosing the songs to appear on the retrospective album Luck Gone Bad: The Songs of Tom Phillips: “It’s got to be a great song, and it’s got to be a great recording,” Phillips said.

Baekeland, who for years shared his passion for roots music as host of the CJSW radio show Boot Heel Drag, has been playing with the MOCS since August 2007. He suggested the retrospective to Phillips. “As popular as Tom is in Alberta, he’s not that well known outside of Alberta. The best way to remedy that is to put out an album of his best songs,” he says. He mentioned the idea to Phillips in the summer, and by October the two were listening to dozens of separate recordings.

They were Phillips’s songs, but the album quickly became Baekeland’s baby. “At first I started really listening to [the songs] myself, thinking I would be hugely involved in it,” Phillips says. “Then I realized I’m too close to it. It was better if I let him go first. He did tons of listening. He gave me a list of about 20 songs and then we narrowed it down and added a couple more. But it was mainly his listening that got us there.”

The resulting 16-track album features diamonds both familiar and exotic varying from rough to polished. Some of the tracks have appeared on the MOCS’s three studio albums or their live one. Others are familiar from Phillips’s acoustic album, novel soundtrack, and contributions to the Sorrow Bound: Hank Williams Re-Examined project. However, some of the most delightful moments did not appear in any of those places. There’s a fascinating track from Phillips’s Toronto days playing with Gordon Lightfoot’s band — that single received a fair bit of radio play in the ’80s. There are a few private demos as well, including an enchanting Christmas Eve recording made as a present for his youngest daughter.

Besides the connection to Lightfoot’s band, the album also coincidentally highlights Phillips’s kinship with other great songwriters. Eric Bibb chose to cover opening track “Ribbons and Bows” and the late Billy Cowsill’s influence is felt on a couple of tracks both as an inspiration and studio presence. Even Ian Tyson’s impact on Phillips is echoed in the fact that Tyson photographer Todd Korol shot the photos for the album’s artwork.

Now that the disc is finished, Baekeland and Phillips agree that they would not change anything. “[Five years from now,] the quality of Tom’s songs is what’s going to stand out for me,” Baekeland reflects. “And that’s what I enjoy about playing in this band is the calibre of Tom’s songs.”