Customer Reviews

Hag/ Someday We'll Look Back

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Hag was Merle's first album of original songs following the meteoric rise he experienced from the success of "Okie." Released in 1971, Hag found Merle straddling the new-found establishment success and anti-hippie sentiment of much of his audience with his naturally tolerant, introspective, egalitarian, and contrarian nature.

Given the rift in America at that time over race relations, poverty, civil rights, and the war in Vietnam, several songs on Hag seem to directly address these issues: the opener, a chilling cover of Ernie Tubbs' "Soldier's Last Letter," updates this classic against the backdrop of Vietnam. Given that we are again involved in a war with dubious meaning foisted upon us by leaders who have been less than candid, this song resonates as if it was written yesterday. "Sidewalks of Chicago" addresses homelessness and poverty, and "The Farmer's Daughter" is about tolerance and respect for others. The poignant "Jesus Take a Hold" asks for Jesus to intervene and help us, given that our leaders have failed us and the country is hopelessly divided.

But the best songs on Hag are the ones where Merle turns inward, and writes of uncertainty, lost love, and whether he can accomplish what his heart really wants. "Shelley's Last Love," a deft and moving love song, finds Merle hitting his stride as a songwriter. "I Can't Be Myself" and "I'm a Good Loser" continue in this vein, as does the heartfelt "I've Done It All." In sum, Hag finds Merle in top form as a singer, songwriter, and performer, it is easily one of his best records.

The follow up, Someday We'll Look Back, is a much looser, more relaxed affair. Filled with fine western swing and easy harmonies, this is Merle's backporch album, enjoyable from start to finish. The band rocks and rolls and Merle is clearly having a good time.

By the time you done listening to this great two-fer, you will, too.

Out of all the recently remastered/reissued Merle Haggard twofers, Hag/Someday We'll Look Back is the least characteristically "Bakersfield"-sounding one. It's not really heavy on those wicked steel guitar licks or the go-for-broke background singers that I love so well, but guess what?? It's great anyway! On these two records, Merle really stretches out his songwriting, drawing more from blues, jazz and folk than ever before and crafting the most personal and emotional songs he'd ever done.

The first album, Hag, probably has more of a conservative bent than the second, with the heartfelt "Soldier's Last Letter," the plea "Jesus, Take A Hold," and the tender "Farmer's Daughter." Throughout the album, Hag uses subtle textures (listen to the piano on "Shelly's Winter Love") to convey his subtly powerful songs. "Sidewalks of Chicago is another highlight with its hard living tale. Other highlights are the honky-tonkin' "I'm A Good Loser," the homage-paying yodel in "I Ain't Got Nobody," and the humorous, true-to-life "I've Done it All." Any fan of Merle Haggard knows he really did do it all, working the cotton fields and doing time in jail before becoming one of country music's greatest songwriters.

The second album, Someday We'll Look Back, might be even better than Hag. Like Hag, Someday We'll Look Back reflects subtly on life's hard times (especially with the title track) but it also finds Merle wistfully telling tales from his childhood. "One Row at a Time," "California Cotton Fields" and "Tulare Dust" all reflect a rough but character-building agrarian childhood and a sentimental sympathy for Haggard's hard-working father. "Huntsville" is a great, brooding somewhat autobiographical prison song with some great lines--"the man better keep both eyes on me, or they're gonna lose ol' Hag." The album also has some of Haggard's trademark humorous and upbeat moments, like on the easy-going "The Only Trouble With Me" and on the rock-influenced "Worried, Unhappy, Lonesome and Sorry."

I heartily recommend this economically-priced twofer to people who are already fans of Hag--I think you'll really enjoy the songwriting risks and growth he accomplishes. I also recommend Merle to fans of classic rock and folk--modern country music's sorry state sometimes obscures the genre's rich history--there's a lot to enjoy here, even for rock and roll fans who usually think they're too cool for country.

I guess one of the things that makes country music so overwhelmingly appealing is the wide range of styles. Today country encompases everything from rockabilly, (Joe Diffie and Dwight Yoakham) to southern boogie, (Toby Keith and Charlie Daniels) to contemporary pop, (Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain). The question is how far astray can an artist go before the fans and critics begin to cry "Sell-Out". Well one artist that will never be accussed of 'selling-out" is Merle Haggard.

Merle has been recording for more than forty years. He along with fellow Californian, Buck Owens helped to forge a new sound in country back in the early 1960's. It became known as the Bakersfield Sound and it defined what main stream country music would sound like right up until today. This two-fer offering comes from Merle's most productive period and contains some of his all-time best songwriting.

Merle Haggard embraces everything that folks have come to expect from an artist who never needed to change or compromise. He never saw any need to adapt his style to satisfy a fickled and trendy record-buying public. His songs are the expression of one who has lived a life born of struggle, hardships and more than a fair share of mistakes. But along the way he used these life experiences to shape a unique style and a distinct sound that can never be duplicated. I don't think Merle Haggard ever put out a bad record and here are two of his very best. Listen...Open up your ears and open your mind and let Merle show you the way to Bakersfield.

Merle Haggard did the great album in 1970. I was only 15 years old and living in Hico, Texas working on our family ranch! I had a portable 8 track player and would listen to Soldiers Last Letter and Shellys Winter Love! His voice was perfect at this time in history and when I found that the CD had finally been released I bought it. I still listen to it today, even though nearly 40 years have passed. A must for music lovers and country fans especially!!! If I could only own one of Hags albums, this is the one! Dana B.

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]

When I saw that this compilation was out, I couldn't believe my eyes. I had searched for "Someday We'll Look Back" for over 30 years, ever since my father took it to a party and lost it. (It was the only album that he and I both liked). I was unable to find more than a few songs from it here and there. Capitol pulled it from the shelves- I thought for good. All I had were the memories of the heartfelt songs that told the stories of so many folks who traded the midwest for California, and the generations that followed. Not many of us can recall our families much farther back than our grandfathers. War had uprooted us and spread us all over the country, so we don't have a strong storytelling tradition. Merle has preserved those times in his songs. "Hag" is a good collection, but much more traditional and staid than "Someday," relying on themes much more common in country music in those days.
"Someday We'll Look Back" is timeless in the way it explores themes of loneliness, alienation and yet redemption and the hope of happiness down the road. It can almost be considered a concept album similar to Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger's" bleak and dusty, but hopeful world. Roger Miller's "Train of Life" evokes the feeling that so many World War Two veterans felt at the time: "I'm tired of having no future, just livin' on things that I've done, I'm tired of sittin' on the sidetrack, watchin' the main line run." What Springsteen was to cars, Haggard was to trains.
The often covered "California Cottonfields," " One Row at a Time, and "Tulare Dust," are probably the most evocative work that Haggard has done, and could be musical accompniment to "The Grapes of Wrath." Even Haggard's more familiar themes of failed relationships and guilt are explored with such grace and understanding, that they rise above the bleak landscapes that they paint and lift us with them. "One Sweet Hello," "I'd Rather Be Gone,"Carolyn, and "The Only Trouble With Me," stand up well, especially against the shallow, cliched backdroup of "country" music today.
Most importantly to me, listening to "Someday We'll Look Back" has given me new perspective in what it was like to be a man from the 1940's to the 70's, trying to survive, raise a family, without jumping on a train, like so many of his chaaracters have done. Haggard took a long look back with his late 60's and 70's albums, and it's been fun to revisit a master story teller and be taken back with him.

Merle really comes into his own on these records. His voice oozes assurance. "Hag" has many great tunes and most come from his own pen, my favorite probably being "Shelly's Winter Love" but they're all great. Even better is the flipside LP, "Someday We'll Look Back". This is one of the greatest C&W records of all time, subtly flowing together and deepening with every listen. It isn't built around any monster hits, but I listen to it all day long. A beautiful record. As far as the packaging goes, they don't list musicians or chart info, which is inexplicable, but the center photo of a thoughtful Merle chilling on an old log clutching his guitar makes up for it.

I was very pleased with the CD and enjoyed hearing some of the old songs again. I bought it because I have a friend that needed the words to "Jesus Take Ahold" as he is thinking of putting it on his next CD. I might have to get another one since he now has it.