Keep Movin' On

History

Keep Movin' On would be one of Haggard's most commercially successful albums, containing three #1 hits. The first of these, "Kentucky Gambler," had been written by fellow country star Dolly Parton (she also provides background vocals on Haggard's version). It stayed at number one for a single week and spent a total of eleven weeks on the chart. Haggard had first recorded one of Parton's compositions, "In the Good Old Days (When Things Were Bad)" on his 1968 album Mama Tried.

"Always Wanting You" followed "Kentucky Gambler" to the top of the Billboard country singles chart, adorned with an almost easy listening pop sound that producer Ken Nelson also employs on several of the album's other tracks. The sweetened sound that Nelson employed on Haggard's final Capitol LPs followed the fashionable countrypolitan sound that was dominating country radio in the mid-seventies.

The final #1 song from the album was its title track, which was the full-length version of a song that Haggard had recorded as the theme song to the TV series Movin' On starring Claude Atkins and Frank Converse, which ran for two seasons on NBC. "Movin' On" became Haggard's seventh consecutive #1 hit and thirteenth since 1970.

Another song from the album is "Life’s like Poetry", which Haggard wrote for his friend Lefty Frizzell, who was trying to make a comeback. Frizzell recorded the song in January 1975, and his version peaked at No. 67 on the Billboard country charts, and was to be Frizzell’s second-to-last single to hit the charts (before "Falling"); Frizzell would suffer from a stroke and die in July that year.

Reception

Mark Deming of AllMusic states that, while the album is "not a masterpiece," it is worth a listen. "If the arrangements and production are noticeably more tricked up than the minimal perfection of Haggard's 1960s sides and these lyrics aren't his sharpest meditations on the male/female relationship, for the most part Keep Movin' On finds Hag in worthy form, and 'Always Wanting You,' 'A Man's Got to Give Up a Lot,' and 'September in Miami' are memorable if lesser-known numbers."

Track listing

All songs by Merle Haggard unless otherwise noted:

1. "Movin' On"
2. "Life's Like Poetry"
3. "I've Got a Darlin' (For a Wife)" (Merle Haggard, Ronnie Reno)
4. "These Mem'ries We're Making Tonight"
5. "You'll Always Be Special to Me"
6. "September in Miami"
7. "Always Wanting You"
8. "Kentucky Gambler" (Dolly Parton)
9. "Here in Frisco"
10. "I've Got a Yearning"
11. "Man's Gotta Give Up a Lot"

Personnel