Merle Haggard belongs in this catalog as a songwriter and a singer whose work bluegrass bands could not leave alone. He was the great voice of the Bakersfield sound — the hard, twangy, electric California answer to Nashville's polish — and his singles era began just as the 45 was giving way to the album.
Haggard's first records came out around 1963 on the tiny Tally label, including "Sing a Sad Song" and "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers" — the latter so popular it gave his band, the Strangers, its name. Capitol Records signed him in 1965, and through the late 1960s he poured out one classic single after another: "Mama Tried," "Sing Me Back Home," "Branded Man," "Workin' Man Blues," "Okie from Muskogee."
What drew bluegrass musicians to Haggard was the writing. His songs were plainspoken and emotionally exact — about prison, about work, about pride and homesickness and trouble — and they were built on melodies sturdy enough to carry into any arrangement. "Mama Tried" and "Sing Me Back Home" in particular became bluegrass standards, sung from a thousand festival stages.
Haggard had deep roots in the older music, too. He revered Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills and recorded loving tribute albums to both, and his own band could play with an acoustic looseness that bluegrass listeners recognized as kin. He was not a bluegrass artist, but his singles handed the genre a whole shelf of songs it has been grateful for ever since.
Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.
Tracklist
- 1 Swinging Doors alt version
- 2 The Girl Turned Ripe
- 3 The Bottle Let Me Down Source Recording 2:48