Merle Haggard Album Recommendations


I've belatedly become a fan.

What recordings should I own?
jimjoyce25
Beats me. hag is one of a select few for whom, the content is as important as is the fidelity of the recording to me. Usually, I lean towards the well recorded aspect of music over content, save for artists such as Merle... and others of course.

Initially, the converted to disc CDs had an applette on the cover somewhere indicating that... AAD. Analog master, via analog to digital recording. Remasters were usually ADD, I believe. Much if not all today are in the DDD realm now... and consequently the fidelity is improved.

I agree, remasters aren't always better choices.

AS intent and sincere as your interest here seems to be, were I you and so disposed, I'd have a look at Merles recording lable history, and use that as your guide. Otherwise, just buy some online from half dot com, locally used, or Amazon, cheaply, and hear for yourself.

Personally, the recordings I listen to span a great range of fidelity and I always use my main rig as the template for listening... IF the quality of the recording isn't up to what I feel is acceptable, I'll play it on a lesser resolving system, which to me makes sense given the era of the orig issue... and the way some recordings were mastered for anyhow.... like 60's pop and R&B... sometimes the engineer was using a car speaker as a monitor!! or the like!! Figuring, of course, that's how the majority of their market would be playing it back
I suspect major lables will provide their top draws with top flight recording and mastering gear. Capitol, Columbias, RCA, and others did pretty well with the recordings I've heard from them and going back a good ways too..

Try some and see.
Hi Jim,

I am a big fan of Merle, and I might suggest Big City as one of his greatest. Kern River is up there too. And his latest, The Bluegrass session I think is the title, is great. A friend in california, could go on and on. But give Big City a listen, you will be pleased.
Try this site

http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/anxietyfriend/2merlehaggard.html

this person has spent a lot of time on discovery and collection.

I do think his latest album though is Last of the Breed, with Wille and Ray.

Getting Hags now fading voice at it's best will require getting into his older stuff for the most part. I think Chicago Wind is an exception however.... but mostly, yeah, ya gotta go back into the nineties and earlier.