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Merle
Haggard If I Could Only Fly Release date:
10/10/2000 Original release: 2000 Label:
Anti Pieces
in Set: 1 Category: country
, country
/ bakersfield country |
Used CD - out of stock Our
Price: $7.99 Add to Want
List |
New CD - In Stock List Price: $11.97 Our Price: $10.49 |
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Tracks:
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Wishing All These Old Things Were New
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Honky Tonky Mama
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Turn To Me
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If I Could Only Fly
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Crazy Moon
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Bareback
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Lullaby, (Think About A)
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I'm Still Your Daddy
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Proud To Be Your Old Man
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Leaving's Getting Harder
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Thanks To Uncle John
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Listening (To The Wind) |
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Album Notes:
Personnel: Merle Haggard (vocals, guitar); Abe
Manuel, Jr. (guitar, fiddle, harmonica, accordion,
percussion, background vocals); Redd Volkaert, Joe Manuel,
Randy Mason (guitar); Norm Hamlet (steel guitar); Candace
Lavolsi (harp); Don Markham (saxophone, background vocals);
Floyd Domino, Oleg Schramm (piano); Doug Colosio
(keyboards); Eddie Curtis (bass); Terry Domingue (drums,
percussion); Biff Adam (drums); Theresa Haggard, Ben
Haggard, Jenessa Haggard (background vocals). Recorded at
Merle Haggard's Tally Studio, Bakersfield, California.
Includes liner notes by Jonny Whiteside. It speaks
unpleasant volumes about all sorts of things that, in the
year 2000, Merle Haggard--a towering figure in country
music, second only in influence to the great Hank Williams
himself--probably couldn't get arrested in Nashville if he
was found buggering a moose in front of the Grand Old Opry.
The good news is that Haggard's first album of the
millennium--released, in a delicious irony, on an indie
label that made its fortune peddling hard-core punk-rock--is
one of his best ever. It's a low key, but not at all
autumnal collection of songs that ranges from full bore
Western swing a la Bob Wills (the highly amusing "Bareback")
to ethereally graceful ballads ("Listening"). Astonishingly,
Haggard's never been in better voice--anybody who doesn't
get a thrill out of hearing him imbue the word "wind" with
four syllables is incapable of joy. His longtime backing
band the Strangers play with a magisterial authority that
makes just about every younger country act sound puerile by
comparison. Not to be missed. |
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Reviews:
Rolling Stone (1/4/01, pp.108-10) - Included
in Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums of 2000". Rolling Stone
(10/26/00, p.112) - 4 stars out of 5 - "... songwriting
control is exemplary....Haggard finds a middle road that's
unusual for country: self-acceptance, totally free of
bluster or self-pity." Mojo (12/00, p.106) - "...An earthy
set that's excellent throughout....stunning both in its
simplicity and its ease of performance..." CMJ (1/08/01,
p.46) - Included in CMJ's "Year's Best Triple A Albums" from
2000. CMJ (10/16/00, p.7) - "...A modern update of Bob
Willis' western swing...deeply infused with Haggard's
personal brand of bravado..." NME (1/27/01, p.35) - 7 out of
10 - "...The key throughout is honesty....Uncompromising
stuff from a battered stand-up guy..." |
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