Disc #1

1. Skid Row

2. Sing A Sad Song

3. You Don’t Even Try

4. Sam Hill

5. (My Friends Are Gonna Be)Strangers

6. Just Between The Two Of Us

7. If I Had Left It Up To You

8. I’m Gonna Break Every Heart I Can

9. Swinging Doors

10. The Bottle Let Me Down

11. High On A Hilltop

12. I’ll Look Over You

13. The Fugitive

14. House Of Memories

15. All Of Me Belongs To You

16. Mary’s Mine

17. Someone Told My Story

18. Go Home

19. Whatever Happened To Me

20. Loneliness Is Eating Me Alive

21. I Threw Away The Rose

22. Branded Man

23. You Don’t Have Very Far To Go

24. Somewhere Between

25. Sing Me Back Home

26. The Son Of Hickory Holler’s Tramp

27. Seeing Eye Dog

Disc #2

1. The Legend Of Bonnie And Clyde

2. I Started Loving You Again

3. Is This The Beginning Of The End?

4. I’ll Always Know

5. Mama Tried

6. In The Good Old Days(When Times Were Bad)

7. Teach Me To Forget

8. I’m Looking For My Mind

9. The Day The Rains Came

10. California Blues(Blue Yodel No.4)

11. I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am

12. I’m Bringin’ Home Good News

13. I Can’t Hold Myself In Line

14. It Meant Goodbye To Me When You Said Hello To Him

15. Hungry Eyes

16. Silver Wings

17. Waiting For A Train

18. Jimmie Rodgers’ Last Blue Yodel(Women Make A Fool Out Of Me)

19. California Cottonfields

20. White Line Fever

21. Workin’ Man Blues

22. Okie From Muskogee

23. I Can’t Stop Loving You(Live)

24. Huntsville

25. Irma Jackson

26. The Fightin’ Side Of Me

27. I’ll Be A Hero(When I Strike)

Disc #3

1. Right Or Wrong

2. Trouble In Mind

3. Stay A Little Longer

24. The Farmer’s Daughter

5. Tulare Dust

6. Carolyn

7. Someday We’ll Look Back

8. Daddy Frank(The Guitar Man)

9. Grandma Harp

10. It’s Not Love(But It’s Not Bad)

11. I Wonder If They Ever Think Of Me

12. If We Make It Through December

13. The Emptiest Arms In The World

14. Everybody’s Had The Blues

15. Things Aren’t Funny Anymore

16. Honky Tonk Night Time Man

17. Holding Things Together

18. Here In Frisco

19. Kentucky Gambler

20. Always Wanting You,br>
21. Living With The Shades PUlled Down

22. The Running Kind

23. It’s All In The Movies

24. The Way It Was In ‘51

25. I Never Go Around Mirrors

26. What Have You Got Planned Tonight Diana

Disc #4

1. If We’re Not Back In Love By Monday

2. Ramblin’ Fever

3. It’s Been A Great Afternoon

4. Red Bandana

5. Footlights

6. My Own Kind Of Hat

7. Misery And Gin

8. Leonard

9. I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink

10. Rainbow Stew

11. Big City

12. Are The Good Times Really Over(I Wish A Buck Was Still Silver)

13. You Take Me For Granted

14. Pancho And Lefty

15. That’s The Way Love Goes

16. Someday When Things Are Good

17. Let’s Chase Each Other Around The Room

18. Kern River

19. Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Star

20. In My Next Life

Review

Merle Haggard is a rarity: a complex artist whose rich scope can accurately be summarized through singles, but who has far more great material than can be fit on one or two discs. Which, of course, makes him the perfect candidate for a box set, and Capitol released the first comprehensive Hag retrospective in 1996 with the four-disc set Down Every Road. Since Haggard has such a rich, consistent body of his work—the best of his MCA and Epic periods, two eras that are covered here, hold their own next to his seminal Capitol material—even four discs leave behind many a great song, yet only those who already own all the albums would argue about omissions, because this offers a generous 100 songs, spanning from his earliest work for Talley in the early ‘60s to his Epic sides of the late ‘80s, containing all of his big hits and an expert selection of album tracks, such as “Tulare Dust,” “Holding Things Together,” and “Living With the Shades Pulled Down,” that reveal the depth of his music. This is a body of work with few peers in all of popular music—the variety of styles and sounds, his ease on freewheeling Western swing and plaintive ballads, his inventive, nuanced originals and expert ear for material, his supple voice and underrated guitar playing, and the support from his brilliant band, the Strangers, all add up to one of the greatest catalogs in 20th century music. And while you can get the basics from Razor & Tie’s excellent double-disc set The Lonesome Fugitive, only Down Every Road captures the full extent of his gifts, in a way that is compulsively listenable as well. It’s not just the perfect Merle Haggard box set, it’s one of the greatest box sets ever released as well, since it truly presents all sides of its subject, while offering nothing but sheer pleasure in terms of mere listening. (Plus, this is the only place to find some of these great songs, including the aforementioned trio of album tracks, on CD, which makes it necessary for those who already own the albums.)

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide