Stellar pair of 1971 albums continues Haggard’s incredible run

Merle Haggard proved himself a triple-threat country legend – a compelling live performer, a repeat hitmaker and one of the genre’s best album artists. When he started his run on Capitol with 1965’s Strangers and 1966’s Swinging Doors/TheBottle Let Me Down, he packed each with superb originals and beautifully interpreted covers. Even more impressive is that the quality never dipped as he released multiple albums per year throughout the 1960s and well into the 1970s. By the time he released this pair in 1971, Haggard was an international success (having been named the “Entertainer of the Year” in 1970 by both the ACM and CMA) and so deeply in the zone as to make these works seem completely effortless.

1971’s Hag followed tribute albums to Jimmie Rogers (Same Train, A Different Time) and Bob Wills (A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World), and found Haggard returning to songwriting. He sustains the melancholy broken hearts of earlier albums in troubled romances, teary goodbyes and even a happy-go-lucky capitulation to bad luck. Though Haggard’s politics had been misinterpreted with “Okie Muskogee,” the social tolerance of “The Farmer’s Daughter” is plainspoken, and his call to a higher authority, “Jesus, Take a Hold” is clear in its assessment of the world’s ills. He holds true to himself with “I Can’t Be Myself” and closes the album with an inventory of some unusual experiential riches.

The album’s covers include Redd Stewart and Ernest Tubb’s “Soldier’s Last Letter,” as sadly poignant in the Vietnam era as it had been during World War II. Dave Kirby’s down-and-out “Sidewalks of Chicago” mirrors Haggard’s own hard-luck songs, as does the cast off alcoholic of Dean Holloway’s “No Reason to Quit.” This CD reissue adds three bonus tracks: a superb version of Hank Cochran’s outlaw declaration “I’ll Be a Hero (When I Strike),” a relaxed jazz-tinged cover of the blues “Trouble in Mind,” and a previously unreleased cover of the tin pan alley standard “I Ain’t Got Nobody” whose lively yodel, fiddle and swing beat recall Haggard’s love of Bob Wills.

The year’s second album, Someday We’ll Look Back, is more subdued, with several ballads lined by strings and pedal steel. There’s infidelity, relationships teetering on the edge and a tearful memory of better days, but there are also moments of optimism as Haggard dreams of a brighter future and considers dipping his toe back into the mainstream. There’s also some twangy Bakersfield-styled guitar licks and songs of the California fields. Dottie West’s “One Row at a Time” follows a Georgian’s migration to the coast, Haggard’s classic “Tulare Dust” sings of the hard labor at journey’s end, and Dallas Frazier’s “California Cottonfields” surveys the Golden State’s broken promise.

The gulf between hippies and straights is bridged once again on “Big Time Annie’s Square,” and the hopeless dreams of a convicted man provide grist for “Huntsville.” The bonuses include a cover of Bob Wills’ fiddle tune, “Spanish Two Step,” and Haggard’s multi-symptom “Worried, Unhappy, Lonesome and Sorry.” Haggard’s first dozen albums are remarkable in their consistency, and though this pair, much like the last few, consolidates rather than pushes forward, they remain among the best in his catalog.

Capitol’s series of two-fers include both original album covers (one on each side of the booklet), color photo reproductions, and newly struck liner notes. Though Haggard fans are likely to have a lot of this material on previous single-CD reissues or box sets, the logical album pairings and remastered 24-bit sound make these sets especially attractive. The only real nits one could pick is the absence of session credits, master numbering and chart positioning, as well as a lack of detail on some of the bonus tracks. These are minor issues for such a stellar series of five-star reissues. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]