Happy 75th Birthday, Merle Haggard!

This clip is basically one giant ball of incredible things happening:


And here are some more:









Merle Haggard singing Lefty Frizzell. Two of the greatest things at once.


Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton:

Today's Army Presents The Gene Price Country Express: April, 1974, Program 3

And here's program 3 of 4 of the Gene Price Country Express for April, 1974. I've basically run out of things to say about this program, but it's still a good thing for you to waste 25 minutes on. The Jerry Lee Lewis song has a skip in it, and Gene leads off the whole show doing a really terrible duck voice. Want to see the track listing? Okay!


Here it is...Enjoy!

My Friends The Strangers

Merle Haggard is great. Nobody's gonna argue with that, and if they do then they are wrong. I will repeat that: Merle Haggard is great. Part of what made his late 60's / early 70's output so rock-solid was the backing of his band, The Strangers. So, in 1970, Capitol Records released a record of The Strangers playing songs (mostly) without Merle. Of course, Capitol knew who was selling records, so Merle's on the cover and makes a few appearances on the record.

This is a really good record (even with a somewhat shaky non-Merle vocal performance), and listening to it reminds me of how good Merle Haggard's backing band was as well as how damned short albums used to be. This whole thing's over in less than 20 minutes. But it is 20 minutes well spent.

Click here to meet my friends, The Strangers.