Amazon.com: For a long time, Merle Haggard has been best known for his least-important music--"Okie from Muskogee" and its sequels, "The Fighting Side of Me" and "Are the Good Times Really Over." All three of these patriotic novelty songs are included on this four-CD box set, but they are dwarfed by the riches around them. Songs such as "Running Kind," "If We Make it Through December," and "I Started Loving You Again" eschew sloganeering to draw powerful portraits of working-class folks pulled in one direction by a longing for footloose freedom and in another by economic realities and emotional ties. The catchy directness, the poetic vernacular, and Haggard's baritone purr mark those numbers as examples of country music at its finest. Down Every Road is as crucial as Robert Johnson's Complete Recordings, Hank Williams' Original Singles Collection ... Plus, or Bob Dylan's Biograph. --Geoffrey Himes
Disc 1:
Skid Row
Sing A Sad Song
You Don't Even Try
Sam Hill
(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers
Just Between The Two Of Us
If I Had Left It Up To You
I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can
Swinging Doors
The Bottle Let Me Down
High On A Hilltop
I'll Look Over You
The Fugitive
House Of Memories
All Of Me Belongs To You
Mary's Mine
Someone Told My Story
Go Home
Whatever Happened To Me
Loneliness Is Eating Me Alive
I Threw Away The Rose
Branded Man
You Don't Have Very Far To Go
Somewhere Between
Sing Me Back Home
The Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp
Seeing Eye Dog
Disc 2:
The Legend Of Bonnie And Clyde
I Started Loving You Again
Is This The Beginning Of The End?
I'll Always Know
Mama Tried
In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)
Teach Me To Forget
I'm Looking For My Mind
The Day The Rains Came
California Blues (Blue Yodel #4)
I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am
I'm Bringin' Home Good News
I Can't Hold Myself In Line
It Meant Goodbye To Me When You Said Hello To Him
Hungry Eyes
Silver Wings
Waitin' For A Train
Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel (The Women Make A Fool Out Of Me)
California Cottonfields
White Line Fever
Workin' Man Blues
Okie From Muskogee
I Can't Stop Loving You
Huntsville
Irma Jackson
The Fightin' Side Of Me
I'll Be A Hero (When I Strike)
Disc 3:
Right Or Wrong
Trouble In Mind
Stay A Little Longer
The Farmer's Daughter
Tulare Dust
Carolyn
Someday We'll Look Back
Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man)
Grandma Harp
It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad)
I Wonder If They Ever Think Of Me
If We Make It Through December
The Emptiest Arms In The World
Everybody's Had The Blues
Things Aren't Funny Anymore
Honky Tonk Night Time Man
Holding Things Together
Here In Frisco
Kentucky Gambler
Always Wanting You
Living With The Shades Pulled Down
Running Kind
It's All In The Movies
The Way It Was In '51
I Never Go Around Mirrors
What Have You Got Planned Tonight Diana
Disc 4:
If We're Not Back In Love By Monday
Ramblin' Fever
It's Been A Great Afternoon
Red Bandana
Footlights
My Own Kind Of Hat
Misery And Gin
Leonard
I Think I'll Just Stay Here And Drink
Rainbow Stew
Big City
Are The Good Times Really Over (I Wish A Buck Was Still Silver)
Get this collection and prepare to get walloped To understand Merle Haggard, you must understand these facts: 1. Saving, perhaps, for one Arthur Fonzerelli, there has never been anyone as cool as Merle Haggard. 2. Merle Haggard meant every word he ever sang, even if he only meant it while he was singing it. 3. Since Merle Haggard, virtually every Honky-Tonk singer has tried to sound like Merle Haggard, and virtually every one of them has failed miserably. In this collection you get 100 Haggard songs, and every one of 'em packs a mighty wallop.
Down Every Road by Merle Haggard Item was purchased as a gift. It was received in a very timely manner. Recipient was very pleased and has reported no problems with the CD set.
Whole lotta Hag! I've got a lot of Hag around the house, but you don't want to hear about my wife--let's talk music instead.
Seriously though Hag fans, it's hard to go wrong with this set despite it being plenty pricey. It's a very good cross section of his finest years and disc two especially is great stuff.
To me Merle Haggard music should be a seperate genre. It's almost not fair to compare him to other country artists because no matter how you slice it, he is so unbelievably good. That voice, at once clear, effortless and moving. And what a prolific song writer as well, Hag was cranking out classics faster than others could have put a bunch of garbage on vinyl.
His songs just hit home with you and are a great source of Americana. There will never be another one like him and yet you hardly ever hear a Hag tune on the radio these days, which is kind of like taking George Washington off of the dollar bill.
I love Hag's stuff, and my wife too by the way. You'll like this one also. I highly recommend it.
As good as country music gets When you think of traditional country music, few names command the respect Merle Haggard does. There are perhaps dozens of Merle compilations, but I find "Down Every Road" is arguably the best showcase of his versatile career.
It's amazing to see how far Haggard's career progressed from the early 60's to now; this collection covers the vast majority of his hits through 1994 or so, with a few minor exceptions ("Movin' On" isn't included, for example). It's all here. All the stories that make country music great: drinkin', trains, love gained, love lost, good-boy-gone wrong, etc. The thing is, Merle's lived most of this. The listener can almost feel the pain in his voice in a lot of this material, and it's completely believable. I guess that's why I like him so much, and one of the reasons he's been so well received over the course of his lengthy career. He's a road warrior, a survivor. I would recommend this collection to any real country music fan, but it's priceless for true Hag fans. Worth every penny.
Not a good cover of Haggard's Career I cant believe I wasted my money on this box. It does a a lousy job of covering anything other then his Capitol years (doesnt surprise me being a Capitol box set) and I dont believe it even does a good job of that. Its a good thing its out of print and I wouldnt recommend anyone wasting their time trying to find a copy.
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