Iconic country music legend, Country Hall of Famer and most recently a Kennedy Center Honoree, Merle Haggard is releasing a new album, Working In Tennessee, on October 4th. This marks his second disc for Vanguard Records and is a collection of self-penned Haggard riches, plus a couple of classics made famous by Johnny Cash, as well as a new version of Merle’s stalwart “Working Man Blues” featuring Willie Nelson and his son Ben Haggard.
Working in Tennessee is another in a long line of stellar discs filled with Haggard’s honest and candid observations of the world in which we all live, as well as life on the road and at home with backing by his longtime band The Strangers, plus a number of veteran studio cohorts. Produced by Haggard and Lou Bradley at the Hag’s northern California Tally studio, the album is another worthy addition to his tremendous body of decades of radiant work. It’s a loaded mixture that reflects the consistently self-possessed artistry which long ago earned him the moniker “poet of the common man” and displays his masterly phrasing with alternately smooth tones and rough-hued vocals that deliver all the resonant interpretive impact he’s known for.
Track listing:
1. Working in Tennessee (Merle Haggard)
2. Down on the Houseboat (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard, Doug Colosio)
3. Cocaine Blues (TJ Arnall)
4. What I Hate (Merle Haggard)
5. Sometimes I Dream (Merle Haggard, Jenessa Haggard)
6. Under the Bridge (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard)
7. Too Much Boogie Woogie (Merle Haggard)
8. Truck Driver’s Blues (Merle Haggard, Tim Howard)
9. Laugh It Off (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard, Doug Colosio)
10. Working Man Blues (Merle Haggard)
11. Jackson (Billy Edd Wheeler, Gaby Rodgers)
