England's Billy Bragg [ tickets ] will make a number of US appearances in March, timed around the release of a nine-disc, box-set overview of the singer's career.

Bragg will be a featured speaker and performer at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, TX, where he kicks off his short tour with a March 17 showcase appearance. Bragg will put in an appearance the following night during YepRoc's SXSW party before moving on to some club and small theater shows in the Midwest and East Coast.

YepRoc Records has set a Feb. 21 date for the release of "Billy Bragg: Volume 1," which will feature four of Bragg's previously out-of-print albums, and also include two bonus DVDs of rare live and documentary material.

The four back-catalog albums included on the box set are Bragg's 1983 debut, "Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy," 1984's "Brewing Up with Billy Bragg," 1986's "Talking with the Taxman About Poetry," and the 1990 EP "The Internationale," packaged with a new live EP, "Live and Dubious."

All four albums will be simultaneously released as two-CD packages in addition to their inclusion on the box set.

Bragg's last full-length album of new material was 2002's "England, Half English," recorded with his backing band, The Blokes.