Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Skid Row
2. Sing a Sad Song
3. You Don't Even Try
4. Sam Hill
5. (My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers
6. Just Between the Two of Us
7. If I Had Left It Up to You
8. I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can
9. Swinging Doors
10. Bottle Let Me Down
11. High on a Hilltop
12. I'll Look Over You
13. Fugitive
14. House of Memories
15. All of Me Belongs to You
16. Mary's Mine
17. Someone Told My Story
18. Go Home
19. Whatever Happened to Me
20. Loneliness Is Eating Me Alive
21. I Threw Away the Rose
22. Branded Man
23. You Don't Have Very Far to Go
24. Somewhere Between
25. Sing Me Back Home
26. Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp
27. Seeing Eye Dog

Disc 2:

1. Legend of Bonnie and Clyde
2. I Started Loving You Again
3. Is This the Beginning of the End?
4. I'll Always Know
5. Mama Tried
6. In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)
7. Teach Me to Forget
8. I'm Looking for My Mind [#]
9. Day the Rains Came
10. California Blues [Blue Yodel No. 4]
11. I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am
12. I'm Bringin' Home Good News
13. I Can't Hold Myself in Line
14. It Meant Goodbye to Me When You Said Hello to Him
15. Hungry Eyes
16. Silver Wings
17. Waiting for a Train
18. Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel (Women Make a Fool Out of Me)
19. California Cottonfields
20. White Line Fever
21. Workin' Man Blues
22. Okie from Muskogee
23. I Can't Stop Loving You [Live][#]
24. Huntsville
25. Irma Jackson
26. Fightin' Side of Me
27. I'll Be a Hero (When I Strike) [#]

Disc 3:

1. Right or Wrong
2. Trouble in Mind
3. Stay a Little Longer
4. Farmer's Daughter
5. Tulare Dust
6. Carolyn
7. Someday We'll Look Back
8. Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man)
9. Grandma Harp
10. It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad)
11. I Wonder If They Ever Think of Me
12. If We Make It Through December
13. Emptiest Arms in the World
14. Everybody's Had the Blues [#]
15. Things Aren't Funny Anymore
16. Honky Tonk Night Time Man
17. Holding Things Together
18. Here in Frisco
19. Kentucky Gambler
20. Always Wanting You
21. Living With the Shades Pulled Down
22. Running Kind
23. It's All in the Movies
24. Way It Was in '51
25. I Never Go Around Mirrors (I've Got a Heartache to Hide)
26. What Have You Got Planned Tonight Diana

Disc 4:

1. If We're Not Back in Love by Monday
2. Ramblin' Fever
3. It's Been a Great Afternoon
4. Red Bandana
5. Footlights
6. My Own Kind of Hat
7. Misery and Gin
8. Leonard
9. I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink
10. Rainbow Stew
11. Big City
12. Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)
13. You Take Me for Granted
14. Pancho and Lefty - Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson
15. That's the Way Love Goes
16. Someday When Things Are Good
17. Let's Chase Each Other Around the Room
18. Kern River
19. Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Star
20. In My Next Life

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41462 in Music
• Released on: 1996-04-02
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: 1.68 pounds

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

Customer Reviews

Best Merle Haggard collection available
It would be rare for a major label to compile a better 4-CD Merle Haggard collection than this one. The box consists of 3 discs of Capitol material (up to 1977) and 1 cross-licensed disc of Haggard's later MCA and Epic recordings. Very listenable, since the emphasis here is simply on presenting quality songs rather than attempting to compile a hit list (consequently, many big hits are missing, especially from the later years). However, fans will have to search elsewhere to obtain "Old Man From The Mountain", "Natural High", "A Place To Fall Apart", "I Can't Be Myself", "Always On A Mountain When I Fall", "Every Fool Has A Rainbow", "What Am I Gonna Do With the Rest of My Life", "Going Where The Lonely Go", "We're Strangers Again", "Always Get Lucky With You", "My Favorite Memory", "Roots of My Raising", and several others. Still, this is the best collection available and features good sound and packaging.

Pure Country
I've been a country music fan dang near all my life. There's only one time that I was willing to put out over $40 (which is a lot of money to a workin' man like me) for a box set of music and this is it. That was about a year ago, and I have absolutely no regrets. They don't call Merle the "working man's poet" for nothing. Just pop one of these CDs in -- sit back, and listen closely to the words. He sings about what life really boils down to -- the hurtin', the lovin', the laughin', the cryin', the dyin', and in a way that just soaks into your soul. Just listen to the words and emotions behind "The Fugitive", "Branded Man", "The Bottle Let me Down", and "Silver Wings" for example. Merle's isn't just successful at singing heart-tugging songs, he can also belt out "get up and boogie" songs with the best of them -- songs like "Workin' Man Blues" and "Stay a Little Longer". Out of these 100 songs within these 4 CDs, there's not one bad song in the lot. You don't have a music career that spans decades if you're not touching a bunch of folks out there -- and Merle does just that with his heartfelt, believable singing. But, if you're checking out this album, you probably allready know that. Thanks, Merle, for all the great music.

Fantastic. An Absolute Must-Have for New and Old Hag Fans
It's my humble opinion that Merle Haggard is the best American songwriter of all time. The songs of Merle Haggard resonate stronger today than ever before. It's unfortunate that country music now emphasizes tight blue jeans and big hair more than powerful lyrics and great music. From Merle's early 3-chord songs such as Lonesome Fugitive and Sam Hill to some of his later work such as Are the Good Times Really Over, Merle always tells a story with a powerful message. I find it ironic that some of the very same messages we find today in inner city-rap music about doing time, keeping it real, staying true to yourself, Merle sang about 30 years ago. The book that comes with the CD set is a nice little biography about Merle. Nobody will be disappointed with this collection. Merle is the epicenter of country music.