Merle Haggard Band • Page 2

I'm only up to 6 of his records and it seems like his greatness lies more in quality songwriting than in variety for sure.

 

Listened to Big City this morning and enjoyed it a lot.

"I Think I'm Gonna Live Forever" is a fun standout, as is "Texas Fiddle Song".

"Are The Good Times Really Over" sounds great, but it's brought down by some frustrating lyrics.

"You Don't Have Very Far To Go" is great, and it's interesting how simple it is instrumentally. The vocals are strong and really carry the song.

"I Always Get Lucky With You" it's another good one and a string way to close it out.

 

Had an amazing experience with Branded Man this weekend and can already tell it'll be a record I cherish for a long while because of it. Such a nice comforting listen for me.

 

It's stuff like this that keeps me so excited to keep doing this every week.

 

Circling back to Branded Man as (likely) my last listen to Merle this week and I still stand by it as the single-album rec. The songwriting is just so consistently solid. I can't decide if I prefer this version of "You Don't Have Very Far to Go" or the Big City one. They present it from such different points in his arc.

 

So Hag is unbelievable.