Merle Haggard
Working In Tennessee
Merle Haggard was made for these times.
Everything he sings comes out ornery. Or woeful. “Working in Tennessee” retraces his greatest and timeliest themes: the loss of love, the passing of time, the troubles of the working man.
“Tennessee” mostly toggles between gentle Bakersfield swing and grave acoustic country. It’s easy, unforced. Haggard is well past his reactionary “Okie From Muskogee” period, or, if he isn’t, “Working in Tennessee” bears no trace of it. Its targets are obvious and unassailable: “Too Much Boogie Woogie” is a rollicking takedown of Ernest Tubb-dissing whippersnappers; “What I Hate” is a musical recounting of Haggard’s dislikes, which include racism and dishonest politicians; “Working Man Blues,” a Willie Nelson duet that’s otherwise self-explanatory, chugs along nicely.
The inclusion of covers of “Cocaine Blues” (popularized by Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison) and “Jackson,” made famous by Johnny and June Carter and re-created here by Hag and Mrs. Hag, seems to point to the inevitable Cash-ification of Haggard, 74.
For all its pleasures, the slightly unfocused “Tennessee” isn’t a great album. Hag, a great artist, hasn’t made many of those. It’s the album you make before you get the call from Rick Rubin.
In the meantime, Haggard balances a handful of great songs with a whole lot of filler, some of it perched unwisely up top: The second track, “Down on the Houseboat,” sounds like something Jimmy Buffett would make if he were poor and depressed. It’s the only song here that Hag doesn’t inhabit completely.
— Allison Stewart
Recommended Tracks
“Cocaine Blues,” “Working Man Blues”
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