20 Greatest Hits

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20 Greatest Hits album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 20   Total Length: 55:59

eMusic Features

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Icon: Merle Haggard

By John Morthland, eMusic Contributor

There's never been a country music career anything like that of Merle Haggard. Launched soon after he was released from San Quentin, it presented him first as a reckless, paranoid, yet rather proud honky-tonk man, the electric guitar of Roy Nichols and the steel guitar of Norm Hamlin both reinforcing his workingman's grit. After discovering, through his prison songs, the value of autobiographical material, Haggard's writing grew even more personal, and more questioning. This led… more »

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A Field Report from the New Country

By Lenny Kaye, eMusic Contributor

Whither country music - or will it wither? Most of the c&w on strut at the recent CMA awards had more to do with 80's power-rock and 00's teen-pop than the morning farm report. In recent years, an alt-country movement in such Willy-billy suburbs as Brooklyn's Williamsburg has waved a country flag, along with a taste for trucker's caps and Pabst Blue Ribbon. This isn't a sudden outcropping on the range; ever since Gram Parsons… more »

They Say All Music Guide

For the money, you are not going to find a more definitive Greatest Hits by Merle Haggard. There are 20 cuts on this baby and all of ‘em were bona fide hit singles that basically defined the man’s well-earned reputation as a great poet of the working class — not to mention as a country songwriter. Haggard’s Epic period may not be here, nor anything from his MCA albums, but it hardly matters because this is one jam-packed set from top to bottom. – Thom Jurek