Kern River (album)

Background

The album is best remembered for its title track, which hit the Top 10 in the summer of 1985. The LP alternates between smooth, country/pop melancholy, such as "You Don't Love Me Anymore" and "There's Somebody Else On Your Mind," and nostalgic nods to big band western swing like "Old Watermill" and his cover of Louis Armstrong's "Big Butter and Egg Man." The LP also contains a rendition of the 1980 Dolly Parton #1 "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You." The version of "Natural High" found on this album differs from the one on Haggard's previous album It's All in the Game in that it features Janie Fricke on background vocals. Haggard had originally recorded "I Wonder Where I'll Find You at Tonight" on his 1972 album It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad).

Reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic states that while the LP "isn’t his best record of the ‘80s, it’s possibly the best example of Haggard’s far-reaching, varied tastes as he settled into his veteran status." In the 2013 book Merle Haggard: The Running Kind, biographer David Cantwell calls the title track "a scary record" that "screamed quiet and startled you alive."

Track listing

1. "Kern River" (Merle Haggard)
2. "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You" (Patricia Rose Sebert, Hugh Moffatt)
3. "There, I've Said it Again (Redd Evans, David Mann)
4. "You Don't Love Me Anymore" (Alan Ray, Jeff Raymond)
5. "Natural High" (Freddy Powers)
6. "Big Butter and Egg Man (Louis Armstrong, Percy Venable)
7. "Ridin' High" (D. Reynolds, Powers)
8. "There's Somebody Else On Your Mind" (Haggard)
9. "I Wonder Where I'll Find You at Tonight" (Haggard)
10. "There Won't Be Another Now" (Red Lane)
11. "Old Watermill" (B.H. Harris)

Personnel