Mama Tried/Pride in What I Am (CD - 2006)

This value-added twofer combines two classic 1960s Merle Haggard albums. Until the late 1980s, the country music industry was entirely oriented toward singles, and many artists exerted minimal effort to release quality albums--Merle Haggard being one of the exceptions. Among the non-single tracks on SING ME BACK HOME are such great originals as "Wine Take Me Away," "I'll Leave the Bottle on The Bar," and "Look Over Me." Haggard has never denied his debt to earlier country greats, and here he tips his hat to one of his favorites, Lefty Frizzell, with a fine cover version of "Mom and Dad Waltz." THE LEGEND OF BONNIE AND CLYDE also combines Haggard originals with other writers' material, notably Dallas Frazier's beautiful "Love Has a Mind of Its Own." Haggard's own "Today I Started Loving You Again," written with his wife, Bonnie Owens, is a country masterpiece that was originally the B-side of the album's hit title track.

Another installment in Capitol's excellent series of Merle Haggard two-for-one discs, MAMA TRIED/PRIDE IN WHAT I AM presents albums recorded during the country legend's remarkably prolific late-1960s stride. Both records feature wistful tinges of folk, with the former focusing on prison life (a familiar subject for the ex-con), even going so far as to include an admirable cover of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," and the latter offering up tales of wanderlust (the lilting "I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am") and restlessness (the forlorn "I Can't Hold Myself in Line"). These tunes find the Bakersfield singer/songwriter in fine voice and staying true to the no-frills country sound he helped to pioneer, whether launching a honky-tonk number or settling into a bluesy ballad. As with other contemporaneous Hag reissues, the 29-track set includes previously unreleased songs and alternate takes, making it a crucial Haggard collection.

In early 2006, roughly in time for the 40th anniversary of Merle Haggard's debut album, Capitol Nashville launched an ambitious Haggard catalog project, reissuing ten albums as a series of five two-fers, each adorned with bonus tracks. All these albums had been reissued before, either stateside by Capitol or Koch or in the U.K. by EMI or BGO, but they've never have been given such an excellent treatment as they are here. The albums are paired together in logical, chronological order, the 24-bit digital remastering gives these recordings the best sound they've ever had, the front cover artwork is reproduced for each album on a two-fer, and the liner notes are candid and detailed. Dedicated Hag fans certainly have nearly all this material in their collection -- not only have the albums been on CD, but the bonus tracks have by and large appeared on Bear Family's box Untamed Hawk, which chronicled his early work for Capitol, or showed up on Capitol's own box, Down Every Road -- but they still may be tempted by this series, since these discs not only sound and look terrific, but they're also more listenable than any previous CD incarnation of these classic albums.

And make no mistake, all ten albums featured in Capitol Nashville's first wave of Haggard reissues in February 2006 are classic albums; some may be a little stronger than others, but there's not a weak one in the bunch, and they all stand as some of the finest music of their time. The third of these two-fers pairs the first two of Merle's three 1968 albums, Sing Me Back Home and The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde. With these two records, Haggard's music began to deepen, as his writing grew more evocative and his musical range expanded. Of the two, Sing Me Back Home shared the most in common with its two predecessors, yet the arrangements were richer and subtly more ambitious -- witness the 12-string guitars that color his version of Dallas Frazier's "The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp." Haggard draws inspiration from one of his core influences, Lefty Frizzell, on a graceful cover of "Mom and Dad's Waltz," while he collaborates with Tommy Collins on the barroom anthem "Wine Takes Me Away" and Wynn Stewart on "My Past Is Present." Haggard's originals on Sing Me Back Home are assured and fully realized, whether it's on the rocking, funny "Seeing Eye Dog," the lazily bluesy "Good Times," or the deliberate answer to "The Bottle Let Me Down," "I'll Leave the Bottle on the Bar." It adds up to a record that isn't just a typically excellent Haggard album, but one that points the way to the progress of The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde.

Although the title of The Legend may imply that this record is a concept album, Haggard's celebration of the legendary outlaws -- inspired by Arthur Penn's 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the title roles -- doesn't extend past the opening title track, nor does the ramped-up, neo-bluegrass of that song (featuring banjo by no less than Glen Campbell) echo throughout the record. Instead, it settles into a nice, mellow groove, building on the Bakersfield ballad style by adding slightly stronger folk influences and maintaining a reflective mood. Haggard relies on material from several different writers here, recording three songs by Dallas Frazier -- "Love Has a Mind of Its Own," "The Train Never Stops (At Our Town)," "Will You Visit Me on Sundays?" -- the Leon Payne tune "You Still Have a Place in My Heart," plus "Money Tree," another Lefty Frizzell cover. None of these are conventional choices, and they're given fine interpretations by Haggard, who also contributes two solid songs in "My Ramona" and "Because You Can't Be Mine." However, they're all overshadowed by "Today I Started Loving You Again," the timeless ballad Haggard co-wrote with Bonnie Owens that stands as one of his greatest moments. Its presence along with the terrific title track and Haggard & the Strangers' restless but quiet musical exploration make The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde yet another first-rate album from Hag, who was on a hell of a hot streak late in the '60s, as this two-fer amply illustrates. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

In early 2006, roughly in time for the 40th anniversary of Merle Haggard's debut album, Capitol Nashville launched an ambitious Haggard catalog project, reissuing ten albums as a series of five two-fers, each adorned with bonus tracks. All these albums had been reissued before, either stateside by Capitol or Koch or in the U.K. by EMI or BGO, but they've never have been given such an excellent treatment as they are here. The albums are paired together in logical, chronological order, the 24-bit digital remastering gives these recordings the best sound they've ever had, the front cover artwork is reproduced for each album on a two-fer, and the liner notes are candid and detailed. Dedicated Hag fans certainly have nearly all this material in their collection -- not only have the albums been on CD, but the bonus tracks have by and large appeared on Bear Family's box Untamed Hawk, which chronicled his early work for Capitol, or showed up on Capitol's own box, Down Every Road -- but they still may be tempted by this series, since these discs not only sound and look terrific, but they're also more listenable than any previous CD incarnation of these classic albums.

And make no mistake, all ten albums featured in Capitol Nashville's first wave of Haggard reissues in February 2006 are classic albums; some may be a little stronger than others, but there's not a weak one in the bunch, and they all stand as some of the finest music of their time. The fourth of these two-fers pairs his last album of 1968, Mama Tried, plus his first from 1969, Pride in What I Am. Mama Tried has a loose prison theme, with about a third of the album sung from the perspective of a prisoner. Chief among these is Haggard's masterpiece "Mama Tried," a semi-autobiographical tribute to a mother who couldn't steer her son right no matter how hard she tried, but covers of Porter Wagoner's "Green Green Grass of Home" and Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," plus Mel Tillis' "I Could Have Gone Right," also give the album a loose theme, but this is hardly a concept album. The rest of the album contains lean, tough Bakersfield honky tonk like "Little Ole Wine Drinker Me" and an excellent cover of Lefty Frizzell's "Run 'Em Off," plus such bittersweet, folky tunes as a cover of Dolly Parton's "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)." There are also a number of excellent, often overlooked originals like "I'll Always Know," "The Sunny Side of My Life," and "You'll Never Love Me Now," which illustrate the progression in both Haggard's writing and his music, and help make Mama Tried one of his very best records.

As good as Mama Tried is, it's matched by Pride in What I Am. While there are no hits outside of "I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am" the album gains considerable strength from its diverse material. The rolling, folk-tinged sound epitomized by the title song is balanced by twangy, spare country and bits of hard honky tonk, blues, and cowboy, not to mention the slyly inventive arrangement on his version of Lefty Frizzell's "It Meant Goodbye to Me When You Said Hello to Him." There are also hints of the direction Hag would take in the near future, including a Jimmie Rodgers song (his tribute to the singing brakeman, Same Train, Different Time, would follow next), and the encroaching celebration of a time passed, through his cover of Red Simpson's "I Think We're Livin' in the Good Old Days." There is another Simpson cover in "Somewhere on Skid Row," but what fuels Pride in What I Am is a selection of graceful, low-key minor masterworks from Haggard himself, who explores gentler territory with "The Day the Rains Came" and "I Can't Hold Myself in Line," while kicking up the tempo with the delightful "I'm Bringin' Home Good News" and lying back with the steady-rolling "I Just Want to Look at You One More Time." None of these may be among his most commonly celebrated songs, but they're all small gems that illustrate what a fine songwriter he is. They also help form the core of this subtly adventurous, rich album that may not be among his flashiest, but is another excellent record by one of the most reliable recording artists in country history. And when it's paired with Mama Tried, it makes for a two-fer that very well may be the strongest disc in Capitol Nashville's initial installment of Haggard reissues. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize