Search - Merle Haggard :: Sing Me Back Home

The title track to this 1968 LP, Hag's sixth, remains one of the most poignant and profound singles in country music history, a song of a doomed prisoner who wishes to escape his fate and return to the family fold through the capacity of music. The other 11 cuts that fill out the record may not quite reach those heights, but there isn't a slouch among them. Hag's versatility is on display: regretful "bottle" shuffles, bad-love weepers, and down-home blues accompany a heart-rending cover of Lefty Frizzell's "Mom and Dad's Waltz," which approaches the emotional power of Frizzell's original. The Strangers are, as usual, flawless, and Haggard's faith in all of the material (his own as well as others') gives his vocals incredible passion. --Marc Greilsamer