If Only I Could Fly

A true icon of country music, Haggard has more often identified himself with the concerns of blue-collar America than with the 'tear in my beer,my baby done left me, and shot granny as she was passing' brigade. Songs like ‘Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down' and the truly classic ‘Amber Waves Of Grain’, out of which came Farm Aid, have ensured him his place in country music’s Hall of Fame.

So, what of this new album? On his own admission it's a marketing pitch for a wider audience, but neither the music nor its quality has changed.

This, make no mistake, is vintage Hag. These are stories of addiction, dissaffection from the centre ground, plain lonesomeness, all backed up by the hope “that maybe things get better somewhere up the way.”

What makes Haggard special is his sheer ordinariness – blue denim jeans with the workingman's mark, nicotine stained fingers and songs like ‘Bareback’ which is a wicked sexual allegory and a sub 3-minute classic in the making.

Elsewhere it's as you were, with strong playing from The Strangers, a bunch of great songs and fans like Elvis Costello, Clapton, and Bonnie Raitt singing his praises from the front stalls or the wings. These are songs hewn from experience. They bear repeated listening. Few albums deserve the mantle of classic on a first or second hearing.This one, though, most assuredly does.