Merle Haggard - Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World/It's All in the Movies CD

Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World/It's All in the Movies album for sale Scholars and fans acknowledge two early recording acts as the progenitors of modern country music: the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. The Carters established country's roots in old-time folk songs, sentimental ballads and rough, heartfelt harmony singing. Rodgers, the more influential of the two, merged African-American country blues with Anglo-Saxon melodicism and original, personal songwriting. Prior to the '60s, few artists lacked the influence of one or both of these acts. Rodgers was the avowed hero of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, George Jones, and Lefty Frizzell, to name just a few of his famous devotees. Frizzell, in fact, recorded the album of Rodgers songs that inspired Merle Haggard to record SAME TRAIN, DIFFERENT TIME. Haggard has a natural affinity for Rodgers' songs of train-hopping, cop-dodging and heartbreak. He also sings bluesy runs with ease and conviction, and he can yodel, an ability often called for in Rodgers' songs. As a result, SAME TRAIN fits neatly into Haggard's body of largely original work, making the album a great introduction to the work of two of country music's masters. The Strangers--Haggard's great backing band featuring James Burton on dobro and guitar--add stellar support throughout. Merle's 1969 classic double LP played a pivotal role in bringing the music of Jimmie Rodgers to a new audience. In it, he was true to the spirit of Rodgers, but brought a new twist to the legacy. This CD not only includes all of the original two LPs, but two additional Rodgers songs that Merle recorded later. James Burton's dobro is stellar throughout. Recorded at Capitol Recording Studios, Hollywood, California between August 26, 1968 and February 26, 1969. Originally released as a 2 LP set on Capitol (SWBB-223). Includes original release liner notes by Hugh Cherry and new liner notes by Colin Escott. Tributee: Bob Wills. Personnel includes: Merle Haggard (vocals, guitar); James Burton (acoustic & electric guitars, dobro); Roy Nichols (guitar, harmonica); Lewis Talley (guitar); Norman Hamlet (steel guitar, dobro); George French, Jr. (piano); Roy "Junior" Huskey, Jr., Bob Morris, Jerry Ward (bass); Roy "Eddie" Burris (drums); Bonnie Owens, William Robert "Billy" Mize (background vocals).

Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World/It's All in the Movies 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 left Capitol, and was the beginning of a creative renaissance, though the personal toll it took on him would prove considerable. ~ Thom Jurek

Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World/It's All in the Movies CD music It should not be assumed from the album title that THE BLUEGRASS SESSIONS finds honky-tonk hero Merle Haggard making like a modern-day Bill Monroe. His actual style alters little here, as he winds his way through new versions of some of his classic tunes ("Mama's Hungry Eyes," "Big City," etc.) and reinterprets material by his own heroes (the Delmore Brothers, Jimmie Rodgers). The "bluegrass" comes largely from the fact that he's joined here by such notables as Alison Krauss and fiddler nonpareil Aubrey Haynie, who frame the songs with pickin'-and-sawin', all-acoustic arrangements that re-contextualize the tunes, moving them handily from the honky tonk to the back porch. Hardline purists of both the Hag and bluegrass camps might be taken aback, but any country fan with ears will recognize the rightness of the end result. Personnel: Carl Jackson (tenor, guitar, background vocals); Alison Krauss (baritone); Rob Ickes (resonator guitar); Charlie Cushman (banjo); Marty Stuart (mandolin); Scott Joss, Aubrey Haynie (fiddle); Colonel J.D. Wilkes (harmonica); Ben Isaacs (upright bass).

Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World/It's All in the Movies buy CD music Merle Haggard's music is great for many reasons. One is Haggard's voice, among the most expressive and beautiful in all of country music. Another is his insistence on working only with top musicians whose assets include an understanding of many traditional country styles, including folk, blues, and Western swing. Most important, though, is Haggard's ability to give voice to the quiet despair of those too romantic to give up hope but too cynical to believe those hopes could ever amount to anything but heartbreak. This last ability is particularly apparent on Haggard's SERVING 190 PROOF. Whether bemoaning the grind and loneliness of life on the road ("Footlights"), describing a doomed relationship ("Got Lonely Too Early This Morning," "Driftwood," "Red Bandana"), or turning to the bottle for solace ("Heaven Was A Drink Of Wine"), Haggard expresses a longing for a serenity he knows he'll never have. As he makes clear in the deceptively upbeat "My Own Kind Of Hat," Haggard understands perfectly well where he doesn't fit in; he just can't find a place he belongs. All that separates Haggard from his audience, he seems to be saying, is his ability to transform his melancholy into art. Digitally remastered by Glenn Meadows and Milan Bogdan. Live Recording

Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World/It's All in the Movies songs 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.

Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World/It's All in the Movies album for sale This BGO two-fer features two of Merle Haggard's Capitol albums from the early '70s. These are largely unheralded despite the fact that they are solid offerings from Hag. Of course, the title track of If We Make It Through December is one of his greatest singles, but there's much more here, too: "Uncle Lem," "New York City Blues," "A Shoulder to Cry On," "Dad's Old Fiddle," and "Come on into My Arms" reveal Haggard's more sentimental side, but that's not to say that these recordings are not powerful. They are, and the man was at the top of his game and remained that way into the 21st century. ~ Thom Jurek 2-on-1 reissue features It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad) & If We Make It Through December. Two much requested 70's Capitol label albums from Merle. Remastered and slipcased with extensive new notes. BGO. 2004. 2 LPs on 1 CD: IT'S NOT LOVE (BUT IT'S NOT BAD) (1972)/IF WE CAN MAKE IT THROUGH DECEMBER (1974). Personnel: Merle Haggard (vocals, guitar). Audio Remasterer: Andrew Thompson . Audio Remixer: Hugh Davies. Liner Note Author: Maurice Hope. Recording information: Nashville, TN. Photographer: David Alexander .