The best country records--and, for that matter, the best jazz records--sound informal and sparse, like they were recorded as an impromptu jam session in someone's living room. This, even more so than the quality of the songwriting, is what separates "old" and "outlaw" country from their leather-panted successor, "young country" (and what separates Miles Davis from Kenny G).
I wrote the above paragraph before I looked at the liner notes to Merle Haggard's latest record, which proclaims it was "recorded at Merle Haggard's living room (no overdubs)." It sounds like it, too, which is a wonderful thing. The tones are warm; you feel like you're sitting on the couch watching it all take place, and the album never feels underproduced, as Haggard's last record, If I Could Only Fly, did in spots.
And you can't go wrong with the material on Roots Volume 1. The record is Haggard's tribute to his boyhood idols, namely Lefty Frizzell, Hank Thompson and Hank Williams. The lion's share of the songs belong to Frizzell, though, and cover some of his best-known and most-loved hits: "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time," "Always Late (With Your Kisses)" and "My Baby's Just Like Money," just to name a few. Williams offers his seminal "Honky Tonkin,'" and Thompson shows up with "I'll Sign My Heart Away." In addition, Haggard himself offers three new songs that blend in seamlessly with the classic country he's covering.
Still, it's Frizzell's songs that shine--not only because of the quality of his wordsmithing (especially in "My Baby's Just Like Money," the album's highlight), but also because, as the essays in the liner notes remark, Haggard was enthralled and remains enthralled with Frizzell's work. He's excited about recording these songs, and even though forty years of whiskey and cigarettes have kept him from hitting some of the high notes, he sounds better singing them than he has in years.
Roots Volume 1, then, functions not only as a superb tribute album, but also as another chapter in the continuing saga of Merle Haggard; it will delight longtime fans and hopefully earn him and his idols some new ones.
4.5 tocks
