I Am What I Am (Amazon Exclusive Version)

Merle Haggard | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: April 16, 2010
• Release Date: April 16, 2010
• Label: Vanguard Records
• Copyright: (C) 2010 Hag Records. Manufactured and distributed under exclusive license by Vanguard Records, A Welk Music Group Company
• Total Length: 40:19
• Genres:
  • Country
• ASIN: B003EY9ZU0
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,162 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Masterpiece April 20, 2010

By Raven

Format:Audio CD

After "The Bluegrass Sessions" in 2007, I had high expectations...and this CD delivers on them in new, exciting, and unexpected ways. Merle is, as always, great. I've been a fan of his music since my father listened to it when I was a kid, and he's only gotten better with age. After the strange, akward funk of the 90's, Haggard seems to have realized the limitations age has imposed on his voice and learned to fully utilize what still works. The results have been a musician growing older with grace and dignity.

"I Am What I Am" is a disc that seems to lean a bit closer to jazz than usual, giving the music a new feel with many unexpected flourishes. It is fantastic. Give it a listen, but put aside any assumptions that you'll be listening to a rehash of his popular tunes of years gone by.

I hope that Merle continues to record many more wonderful CDs for Vanguard Records, as they seem to have given him the freedom to be what he is...

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The welcomed return of Merle Haggard April 23, 2010

By Perverted Alchemist

Format:Audio CD

Bakersfield's own Merle Haggard releases "I Am What I Am", his first album in three years on Vanguard Records. It's a bit of a comeback record of sorts. Unlike most comeback records, this album was written and produced entirely by the man himself with production assistance from Lou Bradley. The album starts off with "I've Seen It Go Away" in which Merle laments over the state of the world. "Stranger In The City" is a ballad about a traveling musician that refuses to stray from his marriage. Further down the album is the rather amusing mariachi influenced "Mexican Bands" in which Merle rattles off the hilarious line "Agave makes me dance on my hands". His wife Theresa who provides background vocals on half of the songs duets with him on the upbeat "Live And Love Always". Merle also makes a couple of jazz influenced songs such as "Pretty When It's New" and "The Road To My Heart". The album ends with the spectacular title track "I Am What I Am". It's a great, but considerably mellow, album from Haggard...as most of the songs are about being madly in love. It's a rather short album- clocking in at under forty minutes, but it's worth repeated listening.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars You Can't Keep a Good Man Down April 22, 2010

By Old T.B.

Format:Audio CD

Neither age nor a run-in with lung cancer has seemed to make a dent in Merle Haggard. I Am What I Am gives fans what they would hope for, and in spades. The opening track, "I've Seen It Go Away" is another song in the long (and damn good) line of Merle Haggard populist tunes, and "I Am What I Am" is another one of Merle's winning odes to honest individualism, warts and all. Listening to this cd, I was stunned by the consistent quality of the work. Thirty years ago, at least three or four of the songs would have been released as singles and hit the Top Twenty.

Much of this cd is in a quiet mode, but Merle sounds invigorated on every track. I'm glad that Merle Haggard is what he is -- one of the finest performers and songwriters in American music history. Highly recommended.