The best thing about compiling a retrospective album may be hearing how your music has evolved and grown over the years.

Or, uh, maybe not.

Jim Basnight can only laugh good-naturedly as he hears himself trying to speak French in one of his earliest recorded songs with the pop band The Moberlys, and listens to his own voice deteriorating into heavy breathing on another.

“Yeah, I was a little embarrassed by that,” he said from his home in Seattle.

But Basnight, 50, has nothing to be ashamed of. The former Stanwood resident and popular Seattle musician has piled up more than 25 years of performances, 500 songs, six albums and a following around the world.

Most recently, one of his early tunes, “Papa Loves Mama,” was performed May 2 on the Country Music Television series “Can You Duet,” an American Idol-styled contest show for duos, proving that Basnight’s unique style still attracts plenty of attention.

Now, Basnight is baring all — the good, the bad and the experimental — in his newest CD “We Rocked and Rolled: The First 25 Years of John Basnight: The Moberlys and Beyond.” He expects the album to be released at the end of the summer.

Basnight signed on with the new Disclosed Records of New York to produce an album of 23 tracks from six CDs he’s released, with music he’s made as a solo artist and with bands The Moberlys in the 1980s, The Rockinghams in the early ’90s and The Jim Basnight Thing in the late ’90s. The album also includes two new tracks, “We Rocked and Rolled” and “What I Wouldn’t Do,” recorded with his current, the Jim Basnight Band, earlier this year.

The album provides a nice overview of Basnight’s evolving musical repertoire that includes the punk and garage power pop of his earliest days as a musician with Meyce and the Moberlys, to the blues, funk and classic rock-and-roll mix of his later offerings.

For Basnight, the album is a great way to kick off yet another stint as a full-time musician and push toward making his music available to a larger audience.

Basnight has been splitting his time for the past three years between publishing an online site for Yahoo Sports and playing gigs up and down the I-5 corridor.

He recently quit his job with Yahoo to devote himself again full-time to performing music. Local fans have caught up with him in gigs at the Cascade Brewery in Burlington, Chopstix in Seattle, Roche Harbor Resort on San Juan Island and the Silver Reef Casino in Ferndale, to name a few venues.

“I’m basically hoping for enough success where I can put more and more energy into writing and producing songs and help with writing and producing for other people,” Basnight said.

Though never landing the coveted position of superstar, Basnight has enjoyed a long and successful career, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Growing up in Seattle, he enjoyed a variety of music, and as a young adult tumbled into the Seattle music scene with enough enthusiasm and talent to quickly demand attention from audiences and other local musicians.

That talent and enthusiasm blossomed as he began refining his style with several successful bands, including the punk band Meyce in the late ’70s (a band that played the first punk gig in Seattle and opened for The Ramones), the much-lauded power pop garage band the Moberlys in the ’80s, and in the early ’90s with The Rockinghams.

He also began to build up his involvement in the music production process, creating his own music label and releasing several album compilations of tracks recorded with The Moberlys.

In the late ’90s, after a five-year hiatus as a stockbroker, Basnight returned to the music scene with another group of musicians to form The Jim Basnight Thing. His music continued to change, as he toned down the power pop of his earlier days and expanded the sound with a variety of instruments and music style influences.

Since that time, Basnight has worked more traditional jobs, including as a booking agent for a large music club in Tacoma and later an owner of a booking agency, to his most recent job for Yahoo Sports.

Basnight had been looking at ways to expand the reach of his music. The Internet has done wonders in that respect, he said, opening doors for more direct marketing of music and less control by large music corporations.

But Basnight’s been looking toward more traditional methods of reaching a broader audience, including releasing the retrospective CD and building an entertaining show that’s unique and engaging for an audience.

And he’s still holding out hope that he’ll be able to tour Europe, where he’s gained a loyal following in France, Italy and Germany and Japan, where rock-and-roll and power pop are extremely popular.

So after more than 25 years, Basnight has no intention of slowing down.

Beverly Crichfield can be reached at 360-416-2135 or .