Merle Haggard
The Bluegrass Sessions
McCoury Music
By J. Poet
Merle Haggard has had a long, and by some counts, misunderstood career. For every “Fightin’ Side of Me” type of tune he’s cut, he’s made a left leaning tune like “Rebuild America First,” a tune that thumbs its nose at Bush and company. He’s always been hard to pin down, moving from Bakersfield rebel to country music superstar, to his current status as Godfather of roots music.
Despite resigning with his long time label, Capital Records, he pretty much acts like a free agent, cutting albums for small labels like Cracker Barrel Music and bluegrass giant Del McCoury own label, a fitting home for Haggard’s The Bluegrass Sessions. The album was recorded in two days with a stellar cast of bluegrass pickers including Marty Stuart and Alison Krauss, who sings backup on “Mama’s Hungry Eyes.” The songs from Hag’s back catalogue always sounded like folk songs, so they work well as bluegrass tunes.
“Mama’s Hungry Eyes,” one of Haggard’s tributes to the plight of the workingman, sounds even more poignant when done acoustically. Krauss adds the aching harmonies supplied by Bonnie Owens on the original, with Bob Ickes’ dobro giving the tune just the right touch of melancholy. ‘Big City,” a Jimmie Rodgers’ style blues number, is given a laid back treatment with more resignation and less anger than the original. With the exception of “I Wonder Where I’ll Find You At Tonight,” a mid tempo honky tonk tune that laments yet another
faithless woman, the album is taken at a relaxed pace. The
pickers are all first rate and capable of tearing up the frets, but they
stay in the background supporting Haggard’s timeless vocals. “Pray” is a psalm of thanksgiving that reminds us how fortunate we are just to be alive. Hag sings the tune with a simple, powerful dignity. “What Happened?” is similar to “Rebuild America First,” lamenting the slow erosion of the American way from the death of mom and pop stores to gasoline prices that force people to choose between filling the tank and paying the rent.
Haggard may have been a hell raiser in his youth, but in the past few years he’s become an elder, dispensing his wisdom in the kind, openhearted songs that fill this album. The feel of the set is actually more folk than bluegrass, more left wing than right, a leisurely session full of understated picking and uplifting songs that could have come from the pen of Woody Guthrie.
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