Merle Haggard - Hag/Let Me Tell You About a Song CD

Hag/Let Me Tell You About a Song songs "Memories and drinks don't mix too well/Jukebox records don't play those wedding bells." So begins "Misery and Gin," the opening track on Merle Haggard's strongest -- and second from last -- outing for MCA. While this album is deservedly known for its four classic drinking songs -- the aforementioned cut, "Back to the Barrooms," "I Don't Want to Sober Up Tonight," and "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink" -- what Back to the Barrooms is really about is the wreckage caused by broken amorous relationships and boozy escape as the only way to cope. Produced by Jimmy Bowen with his progressive country style, he understood Haggard's wish to utilize horns and strings in ways not necessarily in concert with traditional country music -- à la Bob Wills -- yet to write and perform in grand honky tonk fashion. Other than Haggard's relationship with Lewis Talley at Columbia, the Bowen-Hag collaboration was his most successful of the 1970s. Haggard wrote or co-wrote the majority of the album, and, whether intentionally or not, it coincides with the beginnings of his troubles with his then-wife, songwriter Leona Williams (whose co-write with Haggard, "Can't Break the Habit," appears here) as chronicled in his autobiography, Sing Me Back Home. The swinging barroom stomp of "Make-Up and Faded Blue Jeans" reveals the kind of trouble a man can get into when he loses his focus and his inherent distrust in relationships based on "100 reasons for lookin' away one more time." The contradictions in love are revealed in how we love those who can hurt us the most in Curly Putman's "Ever Changing Woman," with its gorgeous low-end piano lines and Travis-style fingerpicked guitars. Like his best theme records, Haggard reveals all sides of the conflict and its paradoxical nature, showing that nobody ever wins when love ends. The drinking songs here also document the beginning of Haggard's beginning long descent into chronic substance abuse, something he didn't pull out of until the 1990s. Even "Leonard," the seeming oddball track on the record, deals with the meteoric rise to country music fame and fortune to the ruin and redemption of a close friend (Tommy Collins); it is fraught with the loss of relationships and resultant substance abuse as if it were an equation. This is underlined on the album's closer, "Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink," which both Wills would have and Ernest Tubb did love. Hardcore honky tonk and swinging Western jazz meet head-on in a tale of romantic loss and alcoholic oblivion: "I could be holdin' you tonight/I could quit doin' wrong and start doin' right/But you don't care about what I think/I think I'll just stay here and drink." This album features Haggard's most consistent, inspiring performance since he ...

Hag/Let Me Tell You About a Song buy CD music This early-1980s live concert recording features Merle Haggard on his home turf in Southern California, performing a variety of favorites, including his classic drinking songs "Misery and Gin," "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink," and "Back to the Barrooms Again." There's also a Haggard fiddle solo, as well as a nod to his musical roots in Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #9," and to his time in San Quentin in the sentimental prison ballad "Sing Me Back Home." Photographer: Fred Valentine. Arranger: Merle Haggard. Personnel: Merle Haggard (vocals, guitar). Recording information: Anaheim Stadium.

Hag/Let Me Tell You About a Song album for sale THE FIGHTIN' SIDE OF ME was recorded live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Featuring Merle Haggard and his second wife, Bonnie Owens, 1966's JUST BETWEEN THE TWO OF US is a stunningly successful collaboration, featuring a sparkling collection of traditional country love and heartbreak songs. The album's wildly successful title track had spent some months on the country charts before it was replaced by Haggard's first hit record, "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers." The pristine production highlights the duo's ideally matched vocals on material ranging from the beautiful "Our Hearts Are Holding Hands" to the rueful breakup song, "Just Between the Two of Us." Haggard's voice here shows the strong influence of fellow Bakersfield musician (and Bonnie's ex-husband) Buck Owens, particularly on the classic Bakersfield cut, "Slowly But Surely," while Bonnie's feisty vocals more than hold their own. Digitally remastered two original albums on a single CD. The first was recorded in 1966 with Bonnie Owens (formerly Mrs. Buck Owens and at this time Mrs. Merle Haggard). The second was recorded live in 1970 in Philadelphia before a capacity crowd. 2 LPs on 1 CD: JUST BETWEEN THE TWO OF US (1966)/THE FIGHTIN' SIDE OF ME (1970). Personnel includes: Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens. Personnel: Merle Haggard (vocals, guitar); Bonnie Owens (vocals); Roy Nichols (guitar); Norm Hamlet (steel guitar); The Strangers. Liner Note Authors: Bob White ; Spencer Leigh. Photographer: Bob Wortham.

Hag/Let Me Tell You About a Song CD music This import BGO two-fer combines Merle Haggard's last two records for Capitol, both of them from 1976. My Love Affair With Trains harkens back to Haggard's tribute album to Jimmie Rodgers in spirit. It is narrated between cuts, offering different facts, from the history of the railroads to Haggard's personal observations. While he only contributes one original to the set ("No More Trains to Ride"), it nonetheless bears a deeply personal and heartfelt stamp with cuts by Mark Yeary, the title by Dolly Parton, Dave Kirby, and Red Lane. Haggard weaves an iconographic history of the rails -- from past to present to uncertain future -- seamlessly and with great taste. Likewise, The Roots of My Raising is also a deep and moving personal statement. Again, there is only one original on the set ("Am I Standing in Your Way"), but it is no less symbolic an album than My Love Affair With Trains. The Roots of My Raising garnered Haggard two number one singles in the title track and Cindy Walker's classic "Cherokee Maiden," which had been a hit for Bob Wills in 1941 -- Haggard's version uses the same melody. These "roots" Haggard is referring to are loose and slippery; some of them are stylistic and musical roots, hence Jimmie Rodgers' "Delta Blues" and "Gamblin' Polka Dot Blues" as well as Lefty Frizzell's "I Never Go Around Mirrors," while others seem episodically biographical, such as Dave Kirby's "Walk on the Outside," Norm Hamlet's "The Waltz You Saved for Me," and the mythical but symbolic "What Have You Got Planned Tonight Diana?" Together they mark an excellent bookend to the Capitol period, but both albums stand up just as well on their own. ~ Thom Jurek Digitally remastered 2 original 70's albums on 1 CD from the legendary 'Okie From Muscogee' man. 2 LPs on 1 CD: MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH TRAINS (1976)/THE ROOTS OF MY RAISING (1976). Liner Note Author: Maurice Hope.

Hag/Let Me Tell You About a Song buy CD music This 2006 twofer compiles Merle Haggard's very first solo ventures, discounting JUST BETWEEN THE TWO OF US (co-billed to Bonnie Owens). While 1965's STRANGERS finds the young Bakersfield country singer still getting his musical bearings, it features a number of excellent singles, including the woeful "You Don't Have Far to Go" and a rollicking cover of Ernest Tubb's "Walking the Floor Over You." SWINGING DOORS AND THE BOTTLE LET ME DOWN marks the emergence of a more confident Hag, with the title calling attention to two of the record's finest tunes--the honky-tonk ode "Swinging Doors" and the classic "The Bottle Let Me Down," a woozy lament about an unsuccessful attempt to drink away a broken heart. This release also includes alternate takes and previously unreleased tracks, making it an excellent value and an essential collection for Haggard fans. Audio Remasterer: Randy LeRoy.

Hag/Let Me Tell You About a Song songs In an era in which a major artist will work an album for two or three years, it seems hard to believe, but Merle Haggard managed to crank out 30 LPs between 1965 and 1974, and album number 30 is included on this two-fer CD reissue from Beat Goes On along with one of Hag's last albums for Capitol, 1977's A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today. His 30th Album was for the most part typical of Haggard's long-playing output in 1974 -- a few solid tunes dominated by plenty of filler, with the production and arrangements noticeably slicker than the glory days of his Bakersfield period. But there are still some fine cuts here, with Haggard sounding spunky on "Old Man from the Mountain" and "It Don't Bother Me," emotionally resonant on "Things Aren't Funny Anymore" and "Holding Things Together," and confident and committed even on the weakest material. Hag sounds especially feisty on A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today, with the tough title cut, a handful of blues workouts, a heartfelt tribute to Lefty Frizzell, and the edgy "I'm a White Boy," which falls short of being racist but would probably be described as "politically incorrect" these days (not that Hag would be likely to care). While the album sounds like something Haggard and his band could have tossed off in a few days, there's a loose but emphatic grit to the sessions, and Hag sounds like he's having a good time throughout, which makes a difference -- even if he worked on the same assembly line as the average Nashville artist of the day, Haggard always cared too much about his music to let his records sink into hackwork, and these two albums stand as proof. ~ Mark Deming UK remastered reissue combines two of the country outlaw's 70s albums 'Presents His 30th Album' (1974) & 'A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today' (1977). BGO records. 2004. 2 LPs on 1 CD: PRESENTS HIS 30TH ALBUM (1974)/A WORKING MAN CAN'T GET NOWHERE TODAY (1977) Personnel: Merle Haggard (vocals, guitar). Audio Remasterer: Andrew Thompson . Liner Note Authors: Maurice Hope; Dean McKinney Moore; Tiny Moore. Editor: John Tobler.