the great merle haggard passed away yesterday, on his 79th birthday. i wrote this post a while back, and for whatever reason never got around to publishing it, but i feel compelled to share it now:

this is a fun joint venture between two crusty veterans. it is very clear throughout that merle and willie are great friends and enjoy performing together. the backup musicians are golden, and the songwriting is very good for the most part. this has a few too many mediocre tunes to be considered a great release, but i quibble. there are at least a half dozen songs that make this worth checking out if you have a country leaning. the title track is a tribute to some of the musicians that inspired these two to take up a guitar. ‘it’s all going to pot’ is a rave up that has a great horn section. included here is one of the best covers of dylan’s ‘don’t think twice, it’s all right’ i have heard.