| Heart to Heart | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1983 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 28:38 | |||
| Label | Mercury | |||
| Producer | Merle Haggard | |||
| Merle Haggard and Leona Williams chronology | ||||
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Heart to Heart is a duet album by Merle Haggard and Leona Williams with backing by the Strangers, released in June 1983 on Mercury Records. [1] It reached number 44 on the Billboard Country music chart.
Heart to Heart was released just weeks after Haggard and Williams had divorced after five years of marriage. Williams, who had replaced Bonnie Owens in Haggard's life both professionally and personally in 1974, grew to become increasingly frustrated with her supporting role in the Strangers, having harbored musical aspirations of her own. The Missouri native had been a well respected musician and singer in her own right (she had played bass in Loretta Lynn's first touring band) and wrote two #1 hits for Haggard: the telling "You Take Me For Granted" in 1982 and "Someday When Things Are Good" in 1983. According to the liner notes for the 1994 retrospective Down Every Road, written by music journalist Daniel Cooper, she wrote the former while sitting on the bus in Ohio, then played it for Merle in front of several of his friends after Merle had reduced her to tears during a duet session they were recording. "He got big old tears in his eyes," Cooper quotes Leona, "and he said, 'Is that how you feel? And I said, 'Yes, it is.'" [2] As Haggard wrote in his 1981 autobiography Sing Me Back Home, "I'd reached the point in my career where I felt in charge of my music...When Leona tried to make a suggestion, I resented it. She resented my resentment. So it went. She kept saying she felt like an outsider...I couldn't understand why she got so upset by the press leaning toward good ol' Bonnie and the snide remarks about Leona coming in and breaking up my 'happy home.'" [3] In the documentary Learning to Live With Myself, fellow country star Tanya Tucker speculates that a professional competition came between the couple, remembering that Merle promised "after Leona he would never, ever marry another woman who wanted to be in show business." In his 2013 Haggard book The Running Kind, David Cantwell observes that Haggard "seems alternately to have supported and undermined her efforts" at establishing a solo career, citing their finally recording together on Mercury causing the label to lose interest in her forthcoming solo LP altogether. Their divorce served as a license to party for Haggard, who spent much of the next decade becoming mired in alcohol and drug problems. [4]
Haggard had to obtain permission from Epic Records to record with Williams, who was signed to Mercury. Heart to Heart was Haggard's third duet album in two years, having recorded A Taste of Yesterday's Wine with George Jones and Pancho and Lefty with Willie Nelson. Heart to Heart was not the success those LPs had been, however, peaking at number 44 on the Billboard country albums chart. [5] A single, the co-written "We're Stranger's Again," did not crack the country Top 40. Haggard contributed four songs to the set, including two written with Williams. Highlights include the Freddy Powers song "It's Cold in California" and "Don't Ever Let Love Sleep," as well as the title track, but on a couple of songs, "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down" and "I'll Never Be Free", Williams contributions are reduced significantly, reinforcing the stifling image of her as merely Haggard's backup singer. In the late nineties, Williams initially agreed—and then declined—to be interviewed by Tom Carter for Haggard's second autobiography My House of Memories, which would be published in 1999. Haggard alluded to this in the book and, apparently affronted, never mentions Williams by her name, simply referring to her as "wife number three." He also stated that Williams leaving him was "one of the best things to have ever happened to me." [6] Williams did later participate in the American Masters documentary dedicated to Haggard.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
Total Time...28:38
with:
Merle Ronald Haggard was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.
A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World is the eleventh studio album by Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1970.
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Heroes & Friends is the sixth studio album by American country music artist Randy Travis. It was released on August 31, 1990 by Warner Records. Except for the title track, every song on this album is a duet with another recording artist. "A Few Ole Country Boys" and the title track were both released as singles from this album, peaking at numbers 8 and 3, respectively, on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1990.
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Going Where the Lonely Go is the thirty-fifth studio album by American recording artist Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1982.
Sing Me Back Home is the fifth studio album by American country singer and songwriter Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1968 on Capitol Records.
Back to the Barrooms is the thirty-first studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard, released in October 1980. He is backed by Norm Hamlet and Don Markham of The Strangers.
If We Make It Through December is the sixteenth studio album by American country music 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.
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My Farewell to Elvis is the twenty-seventh studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard, released in 1977 and his second release for MCA Records. It reached Number 6 on the Country album chart. The single "From Graceland to the Promised Land" reached number 4 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. The album is a tribute to the music of Elvis Presley, who died on August 16, 1977. He is backed by Roy Nichols, Ronnie Reno, and Mark Yeary of The Strangers.
Songs for the Mama That Tried is a studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard with backing by the Strangers, released in 1981. A gospel album, it reached Number 46 on the Billboard country albums chart.
That's the Way Love Goes is the thirty-eighth studio album by the American country music singer Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1983.
The Strangers were an American country band that formed in 1966 in Bakersfield, California. They mainly served as the backup band for singer-songwriter Merle Haggard, who named them after his first hit single "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers". In addition to serving as his backing band, members of the Strangers also produced many of Haggard's records, sang lead vocals on select tracks, and co-wrote many of Haggard's songs with him, including the No. 1 singles, "Okie From Muskogee" and "I Always Get Lucky with You".
Leona Belle Helton is an American country music singer known professionally as Leona Williams. Active since 1958, Williams has been a backing musician for Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard and The Strangers. She also charted eight times on Hot Country Songs, with her only Top 40 hit being a duet with Haggard titled "The Bull and the Beaver."
I Am What I Am is the sixty-second studio album by American country music artist Merle Haggard. It was released on April 20, 2010 by Vanguard Records. The album peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.
Strangers is the debut studio album by American country music artist Merle Haggard. It was released on September 27, 1965, by Capitol Records.
Kern River is the fortieth studio album by American recording artist Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1985. It reached number 8 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.
