Holding Things Together: Merle Haggard Songbook Holding Things Together: Merle Haggard Songbook CD

UK collection. Universally known to his fans and peers as 'Hag', the late Merle Haggard was one of the prime exponents of the 'Bakersfield Sound', developed in the early '60s as an alternative to the increasingly smooth and homogenized country music that was coming out of Nashville. Haggard was also one of country's most prolific hitmakers and composers, writing more than three quarters of the hundred plus songs he placed on Billboard's Country charts between 1962 and 1990, as well as numerous album tracks. This entry in Ace's Songwriter Series offers a broad cross-section of premium Hag copyrights, as reinterpreted by artists as diverse as Gram Parsons, Bettye Swann, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Grateful Dead and legendary 'Singing Cowboy' Roy Rogers, to name but a few. Most of the featured songs are famous enough to be recognized by their titles and are rightly considered to be country music classics but as ever, we have unearthed a few lesser known killers - some of which are appearing on CD for the first time.

1. Swinging Doors - Jerry Lee Lewis 2. Okie from Muskogee - Roy Rogers 3. Irma Jackson - Barrence Whitfield 4. Just Because You Can't Be Mine - Bettye Swann 5. Silver Wings - the Knitters 6. The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde - Tammy Wynette 7. White Line Fever - the Flying Burrito Brothers 8. Kern River - Dave Alvin 9. Honky Tonk Night Time Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd 10. Life in Prison - the Byrds 11. Holding Things Together - Merle Haggard 12. Everybody's Had the Blues - Brenda Lee 13. Mama Tried - the Grateful Dead 14. The Farmer's Daughter - Chip Taylor with Ghost Train 15. I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am - Dean Martin 16. Life's Like Poetry - Dolly Parton 17. (Today) I Started Loving You Again - Wynn Stewart and the Tourists 18. Sing Me Back Home - the Everly Brothers 19. I Can't Hold Myself in Line - Elvin Bishop 20. Rainbow Stew - Country Joe McDonald 21. Living with the Shades Pulled Down - George Thorogood and the Destroyers 22. I'd Rather Be Gone - Hank Williams JR 23. I Must Be Somebody Else You've Known - International Submarine Band 24. The Bottle Let Me Down - Emmylou Harris