Surrounding himself with some of the best musicians in the business (Marty Stuart on mandolin, Carl Jackson on guitar, Rob Ickes on resophonic guitar, Charlie Cushman on banjo, Aubrey Haynie fiddle and Ben Isaacs on bass) as he runs through 12 songs � three new songs, two covers and seven Haggard classics receiving the bluegrass treatment.
The first new song on the album, �Pray,� finds Haggard in a contemplative mood as he exhorts us all to drop our guard a little and pray for those around us so that the world might be a little better place. �What Happened� follows that theme closely, but takes a more observational stance on what is going on in the culture that surrounds us. �Learning to Live with Myself� revisits the past as Haggard learns to live without several of the things he let define him in the past.
Haggard, as he is prone to do, offers up two tributes of sorts to heroes of the past – the medley �Jimmie Rodgers Blues� and the Delmore Brothers classic �Blues Stay Away From Me.� Both find Haggard reveling in the classic melodies and you can hear the sense of comfort he takes in these songs.
The remaining eight songs are classic Haggard tunes reworked in a bluegrass style. Whenever artists redo their own material, it begs the question, why? Often they don�t add anything to the original and are simply throwaway versions. Throughout his career, Haggard has made the habit of covering himself when he moves from label to label, which is perhaps a more pragmatic exercise to keep some hold over the masters of his classic hits, but here the goal is more to rework the songs a bit for a different, although related, genre.
It�s a good news/bad news proposition, really. The songs he has chosen to cover can really be broken down into two divisions.
The first is the deep catalog cuts that, while written and previously recorded by Haggard, are probably not that well known to anyone other than the biggest fans. �Runaway Mama� appears on Haggards� 2001 Roots album while �I Wonder Where I�ll Find You� digs deeper into Haggards catalog to his 1972 It�s Not Love (But It�s Not Bad). �Momma�s Prayer� and �Wouldn�t That Be Something� round out this division with versions that stand on their own.
Haggard�s recognizable hits make up the second division, which includes the classics �Mama�s Hungry Eyes� (with harmony by Alison Krauss), �Holding Things Together� and �Big City.� All of these songs fit comfortably into the bluegrass treatment they are given, but that treatment, while entertaining, do little to replace the original versions.
In all the album is entertaining and Haggard�s first foray into bluegrass is a successful one.
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