In the summer of 1996, inside a sweltering singlewide trailer outside a small Kentucky mining town, an unknown singer/songwriter named Chris Knight recorded an ‘unofficial’ batch of tracks prior to the release of his major label debut album. Over the next decade, through a combination of leaks, bootlegs and legend, those sessions would become something much more. People have been talking about these tapes ever since I recorded them, Chris Knight says. To me, they were rough and stark and I never thought they’d see the light of day. Ten years and four acclaimed albums later, The Trailer Tapes remain a remarkable moment in time, less captured than cornered, a portrait of the artist as a ferociously talented young man. And for the artist The New York Times would soon call the last of a dying breed a hard-nosed iconoclast with an acoustic guitar and a college degree, The Trailer Tapes have now arrived as the long-missing first chapter of one of the most uncompromising careers in music today.

1. Backwater Blues
2. Something Changed
3. Rita's Only Fault
4. Spike Drivin' Blues
5. Move On
6. Hard Edges
7. Here Comes The Rain
8. Leaving Souvenirs
9. House and 90 Acres
10. If I Were You
11. My Only Prayer