So many complex emotions in a single song. This is a quality that set Merle Haggard apart. And a big reason why his songs resonate so strongly, even many decades past when they were written and first released.
My favorite Haggard album is Someday We’ll Look Back. His 14th studio album, he released it in 1971, just two years after the massive success of “Okie from Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me.”
The songs here, however, are a lot more introspective and represent the wide range of material that Haggard wrote and recorded throughout his long career.