2 classic Hag albums from 1976
Darrin Warren | Osburn, Idaho | 09/09/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"In 1976 Merle was nearly at the end of his long association with Capitol Records. "My love affair with trains" featured some great songs. Merle hopped many a boxcar in his youth and those experiences were the stuff of legend. Also included here is the "Roots of my Raising" album which features the hit title track and the Bob Wills favorite "Cherokee Maiden". Merle Haggard is that rare artist who has made every song in nearly every album worth listening to. I highly recommend this one!!"
Two 1976 classics
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 07/16/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I used to have both of these albums on vinyl, but I got rid of them in the early nineties and only recently got around to buying this twofer. Combining an album of train songs with a more conventional country album, these albums are both brilliant in their different ways. The conventional album produced two number one country hits, but the trains album is just as interesting even though it produced only one country hit. Normally a prolific songwriter, Merle only wrote one song on each album.
My love affair with trains, the first album here, avoids all of the obvious train songs, though Railroad lady, the penultimate track, has been recorded by a few other singers and may be more familiar than most of the other tracks here. Here comes the freedom train, the only hit to come from the album, is another song that might be familiar even if you haven't heard the album, but there are plenty of other great tracks here.
The title track is a really bouncy, upbeat song that expresses exactly how Merle feels about trains. Incredible as it may seem, Dolly Parton wrote this song. I knew that from my vinyl days, but now that I come to review the album, I'm left wondering how she managed to do so. Dolly's personal experiences with trains is presumably limited, since she grew up in her Tennessee mountain home far from the nearest railroad and didn't travel far as a child. By the time she started to travel far and wide, passenger trains were already becoming history in large parts of America. Still, she somehow managed to write the song for Merle, which sounds good enough to have been released as a single. I suspect that it was a close decision as to whether to release this track or Here comes the freedom train as a single.
Overall, the album is fairly mellow, perhaps reflecting Merle's acknowledgement that trains were rapidly being consigned to history as other, more modern, forms of transport take away the need for them. You can feel this just by looking at some of the song titles (So long train whistle, No more trains to ride, The coming and the going of the trains, Where have all the hobos gone?). It's all very different from the old songs of Jimmie Rodgers and Roy Acuff, when trains still provided the primary means of transport especially over long distances.
The roots of my raising, the second album here, contains material that is probably more familiar to country music fans generally, as it contains two of Merle's number one country hits (The roots of my raising, Cherokee maiden), covers of two Jimmie Rodgers songs (Gambling polka dot blues, Mississippi delta blues) and a cover of a Lefty Frizzell song (I never go around mirrors). My favorite song on this album isn't any of these. Like the liner notes writer, I think the best song here is What have you got planned tonight Diana? Released as the B-side of Cherokee maiden, it may have considered too controversial for release as an A-side. By releasing it as a B-side, MCA gave radio stations the opportunity to flip the single over if they chose to, as happens occasionally, but they obviously didn't in this case.
This is a great twofer and on one level it's amazing that it took so long for me to buy the CD, but I always knew that I'd buy it eventually if it remained in print."
Love the song Coloradao
Wish I was in Colorado | Seattle | 10/08/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Remembered the song Colorado by Merle Haggard and finally found it on Amazon. Thanks Amazon! Brings back memories!!!"
Track Listings (21) - Disc #1