MAMA TRIED

Producer: Ken Nelson. Reissue producer: Jim Beavers. Includes liner notes by Mike Hoyer. Digitally remastered by Mark Chalecki (Capitol Mastering). This is part of Capitol's Cornerstone series. By 1968, the year MAMA TRIED came out, Merle Haggard was one of the busiest men in country music. Besides touring constantly, Haggard had commitments to record duets with Bonnie Owens (the pair had been named the CMA's 1967 "Duet of the Year"), write songs for movie soundtracks, and make three solo albums for Capitol. Believe it or not, Haggard told an interviewer at the time that he had also recently completed two screenplays! It comes as no surprise, then, that Haggard turned to outside songwriters to amass much of the material for MAMA TRIED. Haggard provided the classic title track himself, as well as three other songs on the record. The rest of the material includes songs popularized by others: Porter Wagoner's "Green Green Grass of Home," Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," Lefty Frizzell's "Run 'Em Off," and Mel Tillis' "I Could Have Gone Right" are the best of this excellent collection. As an added bonus, the Hag's take on "Little Old Wine Drinker Me" is so fine it might even make you forget Robert Mitchum's hit version.