Customer Reviews

Same Train a Different Time: a Tribute to Jimmie Rodgers

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If you are a musican than you should understand that this is as much a Jimmy Burton album as it is a Haggard album. Jimmy plays a lot of slide, a lot of dobro, and a lot of acoustic, and a lot of electric on these records. I think he produced most of the cuts that he appears on. It is his feel for the blues side of Country music that has created some of the best records by Haggard and Jerry Lee Lewis. He's the reigning master of rockabilly and one of the best producers of all time.

Burton actually was a bluegrass dobro player as a kid who got into rock as the guitarist in Ricky Nelson's original band. He's the one that taught Elvis how to play guitar and play well and brought the revival of his career in the Hawaii 1970 concert where Elvis played Scotty Moore's guitar and Scotty Played Elvis's. He was the person who put together the great Hotband that was supposed to be the basis for a new supertooled country rock revival of the KING. Unfortunately, the Kind died ,but Emmy Lou Harris, the backup woman singer in the band, took that band with Burton producing a lot of it to Stardom.

Not to say this is not one of Haggard's best. Haggard has respect for the history of the music. You see it not only on this great album, but in his Bob Wills Album and his Emmet Miller album and in some the great things he done on songs by singers like good old Left Frizzel.

Haggard's voice is so strong, his wryness is never so sharp as here, and he has the strength and dignity not to ever try to immitate Jimmy Rogers. He just sings his heart out on these songs.

I think anyone who is serious about signing, playing, or arranging blues, acoustic country, bluegrass, or western swing should study this album. The only problem with it is that once you get it on the CD player, it is hell to get it off. It;s hell to get it off repeat.

Thanks Merle, Thanks Jimmy Burton and thanks Mr. Rodgers!

I first heard this album in 69. My dad bought it but wasn't a country music fan he loved all those old Jimmie Rodgers songs of the depression era though.I loved country music and Merle Haggard.He taught me all about the depression and what the songs meant and I tought him about Merle Haggard and country music a combo that we came to love and sing for years to come. Simple music about tough times. Haggards voice at its finest and the Strangers are fabulous with Norman Hamlett on the steel and the dobros are an exceptional addition to the up tempo Dixieland sound.

This cd is the best tribute works that I have ever heard...In this tribute Merle Brings the music of Jimmie Rodgers to life in a way that even the most critical Rodgers purest will be impressed....Merle does not set out to immitate ,he brings to us his interpretation of the music as he feels it.He inserts bits of history on jimmie Rodgers between songs.I promise you if you are a Jimmie Rodgers and Merle Haggadd Fan .You will recognize these works as masterpieces.

This may well be the best recording Merle Haggard ever made.He put feeling in these songs of Jimmie Rodgers that I have never heard in any of his other songs.I owned this album on vinyl when it first came out in 1969.It got lost somewhere between Ohio and California.I would love to find another copy.

I had wanted to get this recording shortly after it came out in 1969, but never got around to it for 32 years. Its hard to imagine how Depression-era songs recorded by a then-controversial right-wing, Viet Nam era perfromer could stand up so well over time.

Merle Haggard's treatment of the songs draw on several generations of country and western singers before him. The instrumentals have a sparse, gentle lilt that carry the subtle vocals through the satricial and sentimental songs of Jimmie Rodgers.

Some of the material is a little corny, some has a honed blues edge, and others are political/economic songs about issues that still remain unsolved. The train songs are treasures of Americana.

All in all, it still slounds freseh 70 years after Rodger's death and 30+ after the recordings were made. The liner notes are informative if you're not up on Rodgers or haggard.

This album is not so much a Merle Haggard does Jimmie Rodgers album but is more accurately an album inspired by a Jimmie Rodgers tribute album by Lefty Frizzell. Frizzell was Haggard's biggest and most enduring influence. While Merle was aware of Rodgers, he learned of Rodgers' impact through Frizzell (whose idol was Rodgers).

Compared with Merle's latter and bluesier Rodgers covers, this album still shows an artist who is still learning. The true Merle Haggard style was being born here. Some track hint at the future while others ("Blues like midnight") derive 100% from the Lefty Frizzell versions. The neo-western swing that is often associated with Haggard is intact on many of these songs, too.

This album, while not Merle's greatest or bluesiest, is a good one to see where his style was born out of. This album is, in effect, the bridge between Lefty Frizzell and the later Merle Haggard style.

Released in 1969 as a double album, Same Train A Different Time received little attention when first issued, yet it has deservedly grown in popularity and stature over the years. Here Haggard tackles twenty Jimmie Rodgers classics like "California Blues," "Frankie & Johnny," and "Muleskinner Blues" with great affection for the material. Having survived a destitute youth, Haggard obviously identified with the Depression Era songs. The backing musicians (including the legendary James Burton - a sideman for Rick Nelson and Elvis) are also first-rate and Haggard's yodeling is surprisingly strong. It all combines for a wonderful tribute to the Singing Brakeman.

This is an amazing album, not only the best recording of Jimmy Rogers material, but certainly one of Haggard's best. It's actually not surprising that Haggard first heard this material on Lefty Frizell's tribute album, it has a similar feel, especially Haggard's voice. Of particular note is the dobro playing of both James Burton (his best work on dobro) and Norm Hamlet (some of his best work, period).

if you want to feel good about feelin bad this is the music to listen to. I almost wish the naration wasn't there, it's good to know of course but after the hundreth time thru the album it gets tiresome. Peach pickin time in Georgia and why should I be so lonely are 2 favorites. I bought the origanal album on vinal and I still have it and the tribute to Bob wills, tho they're kind of worn out.

Like a quick aside from his rapidly ascending career, Haggard recorded this tribute after the Strangers had perfected their pre-swing mixture of electric honky-tonk and sophisticated folk-country. As a result, the album remains a C&W landmark. Among the other major stars of his day, only Haggard recorded with his road band all of the time, and the virtuosic fretwork of Roy Nichols, James Burton, and Norm Hamlet (steel and dobro) drives every track. To the musical backing, Haggard lends his unmistakeably smooth vocals. He pulls off an amazing representation of Jimmie Rodgers' tough, little-guy machismo (which he shares) on the best tracks, which include all of the blues numbers. If the sentimental songs on the disc are generally a little weaker, "Waiting for a Train" still provides the record's transcendent moment. Neither can one divorce the musical brilliance from Haggard's use of the songs to make a socio-political statement. When he chose to do a tribute album, Haggard clearly intended to use Rodgers' hard times, Depression-era songs to convey his idea of late 60's populism, which he advanced in tunes of his own like "Mama's Hungry Eyes" and "Workin' Man Blues." The album, despite lackluster commercial success, remains one of C&W's defining records.