These two albums are finally on one cd. I call him Merle'd Haggard, but it don't matter two flicks of a dime because these 2 albums, which are his originally 8th & 9th recorded albums, are priceless and every song on this single disk is a treasure. I am particularly glad that they put the bonus track "White Line Fever" on here. It is a great tune, and although on other cds it has been hard for me to find. A fine bonus tune indeed. There's a treasure trove of other bonuses on this cd that have never been released in addition to this. Another bonus that particulary touched me was "You're Not Home Yet", which you'll have to listen to to see how beautiful it is.

There are also covers of other people songs on here such as Porter's "Green Green Grass Of Home" and Johnny's "Folsom Prison Blues" which are sung with deep passion. If you don't like covers don't let that hinder you from getting this because if you like the Hag like I do you'll understand the feeling he puts into any and all of songs, especially being in prison when Johnny Cash played "Folsom Prison Blues". This is a real good buy for 29 songs that define a genre of music.

Haggard's string of stellar LPs continued with 1968's "Mama Tried" and 1969's "Pride in What I Am," his seventh and eighth solo albums in only five years. He'd already established himself as an emotional, highly personal songwriter, a strong interpreter of other's material, and a compelling band leader and recording artist. This pair of albums (augmented with five bonus tracks) doesn't particularly extend those accomplishments, but expands upon the deep artistic base Haggard had laid down. A lack of progression that might have been disappointing for someone less talented turned out to be a terrific consolidation at an artist's peak.

"Mama Tried" opens with the title single's iconic finger-picked acoustic and electric guitar combination, introducing a first-person story of incarceration in San Quentin where Haggard literally "turned 21 in prison." He observes his own reaction to a disloyal lover on "I'll Always Know," with the observation, "Revenge must be the reason why forgiveness was a thing I never knew," and pines for an absent partner on "The Sunny Side of My Life." The latter's melancholy carries to a cover of Leon Payne's "Teach Me to Forget" that sounds like Willie Nelson's earlier version, and the wounded heart bleeds out in Haggard's own "You'll Never Love Me Now."

As on earlier albums, Haggard brought new colors to well-known covers. His reading of "Green Green Grass of Home" is all the more powerful for its segue from "Mama Tried," transitioning from lament to dream to stark reality. The frankness of "Little Ole Wine Drinker Me" is miles from Dean Martin's jokier hit, and Mel Tillis' "I Could Have Gone Right" is sung with a hint of church-song solemnity. Dolly Parton's "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)" brings Haggard back to the folk sounds he'd been trying out for a few years, and he reaches back to the early '50s for Onie Wheeler's "Run 'em Off," which had been a hit for Lefty Frizzell in '53.

1969's "Pride in What I Am" expands upon Haggard's folk-country ideas, with a title track whose rolling acoustic sound brings to mind Glen Campbell's "Gentle on My Mind." The enigmatic romance of "The Day the Rains Came" adds deep, soulful backing vocals to the acoustic mix, and "I Just Want to Look at You One More Time" has a light south-of-the-border shuffle beat. Covers include a superb rendering of Billy Mize's "Who'll Buy the Wine" and salutes to Lefty Frizzell with "It Meant Goodbye to Me When You Said Hello to Him" and Jimmie Rodgers with "California Blues." Fellow Bakersfieldian Red Simpson provided the sorrowful "Somewhere on Skid Row" and the nostalgic "I Think We're Livin' in the Good Old Days."

Of the two, "Mama Tried" is the more out-going album, but "Pride in What I Am," holds its own introspective charms. Together, they make a powerful two-fer. Bonus tracks delivered with "Mama Tried" include the previously unreleased original "Lookin' For My Mind," and a cover of Hank Cochran's dramatic recitation "You're Not Home Yet." A trio of bonus tracks accompany "Pride in What I am," including the previously unreleased Haggard original "California on My Mind" (in mono), the terrific trucker tune "White Line Fever," and a tearful take of "Streets of Berlin."

Capitol's series of two-fers include both original album covers (one on each side of the booklet), color photo reproductions, and newly struck liner notes. Though Haggard fans are likely to have a lot of this material on previous single-CD reissues or box sets, the logical album pairings and remastered 24-bit sound make these sets especially attractive. The only real nits one could pick is the absence of session credits, master numbering and chart positioning, as well as a lack of detail on some of the bonus tracks. These are minor issues for such a stellar series of five-star reissues. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]

This song should be played to all kids growing up today so they may try to learn the results of their folly.

one of the most under-rated american songwriters................those who know love him.....................

ol'c al