For years, the legend grew about this album without anyone hearing a note. It was recorded in late 1972 and early 1973 and was intended as the follow-up to Eric Andersen’s artistically and commercially successful Blue River album. But somehow the record label misplaced the master tapes, and Andersen went about working for a new label on 1975’s Be True to You, which featured several songs from this lineup. In 1990, the tapes were found, and Stages—The Lost Album was released in April 1991. Andersen recorded three new songs in 1990—“Make It Last,” “Lie with Me,” “Soul of My Song”—to append to the record to prove he still had the goods (1988’s excellent Ghosts Upon the Road had also proved his vitality). Here, “Baby, I’m Lonesome,” “Can’t Get You Out of My Life,” “Woman, She Was Gentle," and “Time Run Like a Freight Train” were everything people imagined. Guest musicians such as Leon Russell, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, and Joan Baez fleshed out the material. No longer lost, this album proves to be the classic it was rumored to be.