| A Portrait of Merle Haggard | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 2, 1969 | |||
| Recorded | June, August, November, December 1968, February, April, May 1969 | |||
| Studio | Capitol (Hollywood) | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Label | Capitol ST-319 | |||
| Producer | Ken Nelson | |||
| Merle Haggard and The Strangers chronology | ||||
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| Singles from A Portrait of Merle Haggard | ||||
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A Portrait of Merle Haggard is the tenth studio album by American recording artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released September 2, 1969.
The album contains two number-one country hits, "Hungry Eyes" (sometimes referred to as "Mama's Hungry Eyes") and "Workin' Man Blues". According to The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music , Haggard wrote "Hungry Eyes" as a tribute to his mother and the sacrifices she made for her family as a single mother (Haggard's father having died when he was 9), but it also stands as a tribute to Oklahomans and others who lived in labor camps during the Great Depression, Haggard's way of "commemorating a whole generation of Okies who persisted through persecution and suffering to transplant their culture to California." [1] "Hungry Eyes" is considered by many to be one of Haggard's greatest pieces of songwriting. According to Daniel Cooper's essay for the 1994 Haggard box set Down Every Road, Haggard had been carrying the title around in his head for two years before deciding what to do with it, and the "canvass-covered cabin" referred to in the song is a direct reference to the home of Escar and Willie, the great-uncle and great-aunt with whom he stayed after his father died. In the documentary Beyond Nashville, Haggard explains, "'Mama's Hungry Eyes' was written about a period in America where there were places like labor camps, and the people in these labor camps that weren't ignorant and they weren't a lot of things Steinbeck thought they were." The song would also serve as the title to the 1994 tribute album Mama's Hungry Eyes: A Tribute to Merle Haggard .
The album's other number-one hit is "Workin' Man Blues", referencing blue collar pride, an oft-used subject of Haggard's songwriting. [2] In his 2013 book The Running Kind, David Cantwell praises the contributions of guitarists James Burton and Roy Nichols, as well as session bassist Chuck Berghofer, stating, "Burton and the Strangers had ridden a kindred rocking guitar groove on 1968's 'I'm Bringing Home Good News,' but 'Workin' Man Blues' sets the standard." Lines such as "I ain't never been on welfare, and that's one place I won't be" reinforced Haggard's status as "Poet of the Common Man."
Haggard wrote four of the LP's ten songs himself, including the mournful "Silver Wings" which, much like his earlier composition "Today I Started Loving You Again," was never released as a single but became immensely popular with audiences. A Portrait of Merle Haggard includes four songs penned by Haggard as well as compositions by Willie Nelson, Leon Payne and Hank Cochran.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [3] |
The album rose to number 3 on the Billboard country albums chart. Mark Deming of AllMusic: "Three of Haggard's finest songs appear on this set—'Silver Wings,' 'Hungry Eyes,' and 'Workin' Man's Blues'—and most country artists would be happy to cut three tunes this strong during the course of their career, let alone as part of one of six albums Hag would release in 1969... The production and arrangements are admirably low-key and to the point, and Haggard's vocals are deeply emotive without overplaying his hand." [3]
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| Chart (1970) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Billboard Country albums | 3 |
| Billboard Pop albums | 99 |
Merle Ronald Haggard was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.
Branded Man is the fourth studio album by American country singer Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released on Capitol Records in 1967.
Okie from Muskogee is the first live album by Merle Haggard and the Strangers released in October 1969 on Capitol Records.
"Hungry Eyes" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in February 1969 as the first single from the album A Portrait of Merle Haggard. The song was one of the most famous of his career.
"Workin' Man Blues" is a song written and performed by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in May 1969 as the second single from the album A Portrait of Merle Haggard. The song was released during his early peak and became one of several signature songs during his career.
The Bluegrass Sessions is the sixty-first studio album by American country music singer and songwriter Merle Haggard. This album was released on October 2, 2007, on the McCoury Music and Hag Records.
Mama Tried is the seventh studio album by American country music singer and songwriter Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released on Capitol Records in 1968. It reached number 4 on Billboard's country albums chart. The title song was one of Haggard's biggest hit singles and won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.
Pride in What I Am is the eighth studio album by Merle Haggard and The Strangers released in 1969 on Capitol Records.
If We Make It Through December is the sixteenth studio album by American country singer Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1974. It reached number 4 on the Billboard country album charts. The title track was previously released on Haggard's Christmas release of 1973, A Christmas Present. The single spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart in December 1973 and January 1974, and cracked the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100. "If We Make It Through December" was the No. 2 song of the year on Billboard's Hot Country Singles 1974 year-end chart.
Merle Haggard Presents His 30th Album is the seventeenth studio album by American country singer Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1974. Contrary to the album's title, this was his 17th studio album; however, the number 30 included his six collaborative albums, three live albums, one 'live' gospel album, one Christmas album, and two greatest hits compilations up to that point.
It's All in the Movies is the nineteenth studio album by American country singer Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1976.
A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today is the 26th studio album by American country singer Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1977. Even though Haggard had moved to the MCA label, Capitol created this release from tracks previously recorded in 1975 and 1976.
1994 is the forty-eighth studio album by American country singer Merle Haggard, released in 1994.
16 Biggest Hits is a 1998 Merle Haggard compilation album. It is part of a series of similar 16 Biggest Hits albums released by Legacy Recordings.
"I Threw Away the Rose" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in February 1967 as the first single from the album Branded Man. The song peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles. In 1994 Lorrie Morgan recorded a version of the song which replaced the "I" in the lyrics with "you", changing it from a self-referential song to a song about someone else, for the Merle Haggard tribute album Mama's Hungry Eyes: A Tribute to Merle Haggard.
"Running Kind" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in January 1978 as the second and final single from the album, A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today. The song peaked at number 12 on the U.S. country singles chart and at number 10 on the Canadian country singles chart. The song was later covered by Radney Foster for the Haggard tribute album Mama's Hungry Eyes: A Tribute to Merle Haggard. Foster's version was released as a single in 1994 and peaked at number 64 on the U.S. country singles chart. Johnny Cash also covered the song with Tom Petty on the Unearthed box set.
Songs I'll Always Sing is a two-record compilation album by American country music singer and songwriter Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1977. It reached #15 in the US Country Charts. The album collects many of Haggard's best known recordings during his successful run at the label, including nine of his twenty-four #1 hits dating back to 1966.
Rainbow Stew Live at Anaheim Stadium is a live album by American country music artist Merle Haggard with backing by The Strangers. It was recorded in October 1980 and released in July 1981 on MCA Records.
Amber Waves of Grain is a live album by American country music artist Merle Haggard with backing by The Strangers, released in 1985. It was Haggard's third live album in four years and was recorded at the Hollywood Star Theater. It features a mix of Haggard's big hits and other, more obscure tracks. The title cut, written by Freddy Powers, is a paean to the American farmer, in keeping with the spirit of the Willie Nelson-spearheaded Farm Aid benefit, as does "Tulare Dust" and "The Farmer's Daughter." The LP peaked at number 25 on the Billboard country albums chart.
Seashores of Old Mexico is a studio album by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. It is a sequel to their enormously successful 1983 duet album Pancho and Lefty and was released in 1987. They are backed by The Strangers. The only charting single was a cover of a 1979 Blaze Foley song, "If I Could Only Fly", which peaked at number 58 on the 1987 Billboard Hot Country Songs singles chart.
