Wayne Bledsoe: At 74, Merle Haggard is still one of country music's great artists

Merle Haggard

"Working in Tennessee," Merle Haggard (Vanguard)

Merle Haggard is one of the last real country music legends standing. Not only is he still standing, he's still making great music and he's still writing good songs. Haggard, of course, would have still been revered if he had only created "Mama Tried," "Okie from Muskogee," "I Take a Lot of Pride In Who I Am" or one of the scores of other tunes he's written, recorded and had hits with.

Haggard's new album, "Working in Tennessee," is solid stuff — from the Western swing title cut featuring a narrator whose move to Music City didn't quite turn out like he planned to Haggard's diss on the modern country "Too Much Boogie Woogie" and revived favorites, including "Working Man Blues" with Willie Nelson and Haggard's son Ben Haggard.

He also digs up the 1940s-era drug and murder ballad (exhumed by Johnny Cash in the 1960s) "Cocaine Blues." Appropriately, Haggard sings it with with the ease and charm of an old buddy at a late- night picking party.

Haggard's biggest artistic strengths have always come from his simplicity and honesty. When he sings "Things I Hate" he probably doesn't mention anything that any one would disagree with and it doesn't sound like he had to think too hard about what he was going to sing about, but it flows so easily and Haggard sounds so matter-of-fact sincere, you can't help but love it.

There's nothing on "Working in Tennessee" that ranks with Haggard's classics, but how many classics are being written in any genre today? The fact that, at age 74, Haggard is still staying true to his art and giving fans their money's worth is good enough.

"Piano Man (Legacy Edition)," Billy Joel (Legacy)

"Piano Man" wasn't Billy Joel's first album nor his best, but it was the one that introduced Billy Joel to radio listeners with its title cut hit and the college radio favorite "Captain Jack." It's an album that's loaded with sentimentality, young-artist earnestness, arrogance and catchy songs, and remains pretty lovable. However, it's only a hint at what Joel would achieve two discs later with "Turnstiles," arguably his best album.

Legacy Records' remastered edition of "Piano Man" adds a second CD featuring Joel's live performance in 1972 for a Philadelphia radio station.

The disc features the then-unknown singer-songwriter cracking jokes with the studio audience, asking for direction and slurping beer. Several of the performances of songs from Joel's debut album, "Cold Spring Harbor," are better than the studio versions. There's three songs ("Josephine," "Rosalinda" and "Long, Long Time") that make their first appearances on album here and the version of "Captain Jack" that became an underground radio standard.

This set is a precursor to a boxed set of "The Complete Albums Collection" featuring Joel's 14 discs and an album of rarities, but will not include the live disc on the Legacy edition of "Piano Man."

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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