Workin' Man Blues By Merle Haggard

The 2012 release Icon rounds up 11 songs Merle Haggard recorded for MCA in the late '70s and early '80s -- a period that sometimes gets overlooked between his seminal early stint at Capitol and his later successes at Epic. ...

A compelling argument can be made that Merle Haggard has been the most important country artist to emerge since the 1950s (Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings are his only true competition), and HAG: THE BEST OF MERLE HAGGARD supports that ...

Originally released in 1972, THE BEST OF THE BEST includes 11 of Haggard's then-recent hits. These are the songs that earned him the nickname "the working man's poet." During the period covered by this disc (1969 to 1972) Haggard's music ...

DOWN EVERY ROAD covers Merle Haggard's entire career, culling material from the vaults of Capitol, MCA, Curb and Sony Records. Recorded between 1962 and 1994. Includes liner notes by Daniel Cooper. Country music has had a long and proud tradition of outlaws ...

Don Markham (saxophone, trumpet, background vocals); Eddie Curtis (bass); Randy Mason (drums); Theresa Lane Haggard, Bonnie Owens (background vocals). Recorded live at Billy Bob's Texas, Fort Worth, Texas. Includes liner notes by Bill Mack. Longtime Hag fans who pine for Merle's salad ...

Merle Haggard's Capitol recordings have been anthologized countless times so it could stand to reason there isn't much use for another CD of Hag's '60s sides. That assumption is decidedly wrong. Omnivore's 2013 set, The Complete '60s Capitol Singles, is ...

This extensive best-of illustrates both the breadth of Merle Haggard's songwriting and his ability to unerringly hit a nerve with the American public. Blue-collar songs, drinking songs, outlaw songs, and prison songs are all well-represented here. Barroom songs like "I ...

Though Capitol Records let much of Merle Haggard's vintage '60s catalog remain unjustly out of print for too long, they began mending their ways in the 21st century with the reissue of those classic titles. Making even further amends is ...

Though this two-CD set is an unusually extensive survey of Merle Haggard's back catalog of songs, it barely scratches the surface of the singer's remarkable output. Nevertheless, four decades of recordings, like his first hit, "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) ...

Though these recordings, made sometime in the 1990s, aren't the original versions, the performances by Haggard and his band on this selection of some of his most popular songs are uniformly excellent. "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers" was originally ...

Over 40 years into his unassailable career, Merle Haggard still defines his own Bakersfield sound on Working in Tennessee, which he co-produced with Lou Bradley at his Northern California studio. Haggard doesn't break new ground here, but he settles gracefully ...

This collection of country blues, ragtime, ballads, and just plain country songs with the word "blues" in the title highlights Merle Haggard's considerable knowledge of country and popular music history. Haggard puts in assured and often compelling vocal performances on ...

This concise collection of Merle Haggard's chart-topping songs shows both his writing skill and his ability to unerringly hit a nerve with the American public. Blue-collar songs, drinking songs, outlaw songs, and prison songs are all well-represented here. Barroom songs ...

Purists may quibble over the somewhat misleading packaging here, since it's only when you read the liner notes that you discover that these are mid-'90s re-recordings of Haggard's signature songs from the '60s and '70s. Nevertheless, this is well worth ...

While the New West label had previously released an excellent live-at-Austin City Limits Merle Haggard album from the 1980s, this '78 date finds Hag appearing on that legendary program at an even more interesting time in his career. Haggard was ...

Merle Haggard has always been a maverick, and it's refreshing how he hasn't changed his approach or attitude to things in a 60-some-year career as a musician, singer, and songwriter -- he has excelled at all three of those things, ...

Track Listing: Okie From Muskogee; Mama Tried; Carolyn; Fightin' Side Of Me, The; It's Not Love; Workin' Man Blues; If We Make It Through December; Soldier's Last Letter; I'm A Lonesome Fugitive; Everybody's Had The Blues;

Track Listing: I'd Rather Be Gone; Montego Bay; I Die Ten Thousand Times a Day; California on My Mind; California Cotton Fields; White Line Fever; I Came So Close to Failure; Workin' Man Blues; Sea Shores of Old Mexico, The; ...

This intriguing best-of combines original recordings of some of Merle Haggard's best-known songs, like the semi-autobiographical "Mama Tried," the love-it-or-leave-it anthem "The Fighting Side of Me," and the workingman's lament "If We Make It Through December," with four impeccable 1990s ...

This collection of Merle Haggard hits merely scratches the surface of the Bakersfield singer's prolific output, but with songs like the redneck anthem "Okie From Muskogee," which earned the ex-convict a pardon from Ronald Reagan, the prison lament "Sing Me ...

Track Listing: DISC 1: Okie From Muskogee; Branded Man; Mama Tried; Sing Me Back Home; Legend of Bonie and Clyde, The; Hungry Eyes; Workin' Man Blues; Fightin' Side of Me, The; Daddy Frank; Carolyn; DISC 2: I Think I'll Just ...

This succinct best-of features three of Merle Haggard's more autobiographical songs in "Branded Man," Hungry Eyes," and "Workin' Man Blues," as well as some of his gloomier country material, like "Things Aren't Funny Anymore," "I Threw Away the Rose," and ...

This cut-price best-of contains some of Merle Haggard's best known drinking songs, like "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink," "Misery and Gin," and "The Bottle Let Me Down," all performed in impeccable Bakersfield style. Haggard's working-class outlaw persona ...

GREATEST HITS contains 12 new versions of classic Merle Haggard songs. Because it was recorded at Haggard's home studio in 1995 with his stage band providing backing, the record sounds a lot like a board recording of a '95 Merle ...

NUMBER ONE SONGS is a budget-priced collection of 10 of Merle Haggard's most popular songs from his late 1960s and early '70s heyday. Highlights include his first hit, "Mama Tried"; the mid-'70s recession anthem "If We Make It Thru December"; ...