Universally known to his fans and peers as ‘Hag’, the late Merle Haggard was one of the prime exponents of the ‘Bakersfield Sound’, developed in the early 60s as an alternative to the increasingly smooth and homogenised country music that was coming out of Nashville.As well as having one of the most distinctive and memorable voices of his generation, Haggard was also one of country’s most prolific hitmakers and composers, writing more than three quarters of the hundred plus songs he placed on Billboard’s Country charts between 1962 and 1990, as well as numerous album tracks.The latest entry in Ace’s ‘Songwriter Series’, “Holding Things Together” offers a broad cross-section of premium Hag copyrights, as reinterpreted by artists as diverse as Gram Parsons (in various guises), Bettye Swann, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Grateful Dead and legendary ‘Singing Cowboy’ Roy Rogers, to name but a few.

• 1. Swinging Doors - Jerry Lee Lewis
• 2. Okie From Muskogee - Roy Rogers
• 3. Irma Jackson - Barrence Whitfield
• 4. Just Because You Can't Be Mine - Bettye Swann
• 5. Silver Wings - the Knitters
• 6. The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde - Tammy Wynette
• 7. White Line Fever - the Flying Burrito Brothers
• 8. Kern River - Dave Alvin
• 9. Honky Tonk Night Time Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd
• 10. Life In Prison - the Byrds
• 11. Holding Things Together - Merle Haggard
• 12. Everybody's Had the Blues - Brenda Lee
• 13. Mama Tried - the Grateful Dead
• 14. The Farmer's Daughter - Chip Taylor With Ghost Train
• 15. I Take a Lot of Pride In What I Am - Dean Martin
• 16. Life's Like Poetry - Dolly Parton
• 17. (Today) I Started Loving You Again - Wynn Stewart and the T
• 18. Sing Me Back Home - the Everly Brothers
• 19. I Can't Hold Myself In Line - Elvin Bishop
• 20. Rainbow Stew - Country Joe McDonald
• 21. Living With the Shades Pulled Down - George Thorogood and Th
• 22. I'd Rather Be Gone - Hank Williams Jr.
• 23. I Must Be Somebody Else You've Known - International Submari
• 24. The Bottle Let Me Down - Emmylou Harris