Merle Haggard - Roots, Vol. 1

If I Could Only Fly, Merle Haggard's first album for the indie label Anti, was deservedly hailed as his finest record in decades, as audiences and critics recognized a revitalized Hag. It wasn't just that his songwriting was stronger than it had been, but it was also the unhurried grace of the performances that recalled his peaks with The Strangers in the '60s and '70s. If I Could Only Fly set the bar so high that it would have been easy to assume that Haggard couldn't match it with his next album for Anti but, remarkably, Roots, Vol. 1..... Read More