Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
For a long time, Merle Haggard has been best known for his least-important music--'Okie from Muskogee' and its sequels, 'The Fighting Side of Me' and 'Are the Good Times Really Over.' All three of these patriotic novelty songs are included on this four-CD box set, but they are dwarfed by the riches around them. Songs such as 'Running Kind,' 'If We Make it Through December,' and 'I Started Loving You Again' eschew sloganeering to draw powerful portraits of working-class folks pulled in one direction by a longing for footloose freedom and in another by economic realities and emotional ties. The catchy directness, the poetic vernacular, and Haggard's baritone purr mark those numbers as examples of country music at its finest. Down Every Road is as crucial as Robert Johnson's Complete Recordings, Hank Williams' Original Singles Collection ... Plus, or Bob Dylan's Biograph. --Geoffrey Himes









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Disc 1:

1. Skid Row
2. Sing A Sad Song
3. You Don't Even Try
4. Sam Hill
5. (My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers
6. Just Between The Two Of Us
7. If I Had Left It Up To You
8. I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can
9. Swinging Doors
10. The Bottle Let Me Down
11. High On A Hilltop
12. I'll Look Over You
13. The Fugitive
14. House Of Memories
15. All Of Me Belongs To You
16. Mary's Mine
17. Someone Told My Story
18. Go Home
19. Whatever Happened To Me
20. Loneliness Is Eating Me Alive
21. I Threw Away The Rose
22. Branded Man
23. You Don't Have Very Far To Go
24. Somewhere Between
25. Sing Me Back Home
26. The Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp
27. Seeing Eye Dog

Disc 2:

1. The Legend Of Bonnie And Clyde
2. I Started Loving You Again
3. Is This The Beginning Of The End?
4. I'll Always Know
5. Mama Tried
6. In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)
7. Teach Me To Forget
8. I'm Looking For My Mind
9. The Day The Rains Came
10. California Blues (Blue Yodel #4)
11. I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am
12. I'm Bringin' Home Good News
13. I Can't Hold Myself In Line
14. It Meant Goodbye To Me When You Said Hello To Him
15. Hungry Eyes
16. Silver Wings
17. Waitin' For A Train
18. Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel (The Women Make A Fool Out Of Me)
19. California Cottonfields
20. White Line Fever
21. Workin' Man Blues
22. Okie From Muskogee
23. I Can't Stop Loving You
24. Huntsville
25. Irma Jackson
26. The Fightin' Side Of Me
27. I'll Be A Hero (When I Strike)

Disc 3:

1. Right Or Wrong
2. Trouble In Mind
3. Stay A Little Longer
4. The Farmer's Daughter
5. Tulare Dust
6. Carolyn
7. Someday We'll Look Back
8. Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man)
9. Grandma Harp
10. It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad)
11. I Wonder If They Ever Think Of Me
12. If We Make It Through December
13. The Emptiest Arms In The World
14. Everybody's Had The Blues
15. Things Aren't Funny Anymore
16. Honky Tonk Night Time Man
17. Holding Things Together
18. Here In Frisco
19. Kentucky Gambler
20. Always Wanting You
21. Living With The Shades Pulled Down
22. Running Kind
23. It's All In The Movies
24. The Way It Was In '51
25. I Never Go Around Mirrors
26. What Have You Got Planned Tonight Diana

Disc 4:

1. If We're Not Back In Love By Monday
2. Ramblin' Fever
3. It's Been A Great Afternoon
4. Red Bandana
5. Footlights
6. My Own Kind Of Hat
7. Misery And Gin
8. Leonard
9. I Think I'll Just Stay Here And Drink
10. Rainbow Stew
11. Big City
12. Are The Good Times Really Over (I Wish A Buck Was Still Silver)
13. You Take Me For Granted
14. Pancho And Lefty
15. That's The Way Love Goes
16. Someday When Things Are Good
17. Let's Chase Each Other Around The Room
18. Kern River
19. Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star
20. In My Next Life

Rating: - Get this collection and prepare to get walloped
To understand Merle Haggard, you must understand these facts:
1. Saving, perhaps, for one Arthur Fonzerelli, there has never been anyone as cool as Merle Haggard.
2. Merle Haggard meant every word he ever sang, even if he only meant it while he was singing it.
3. Since Merle Haggard, virtually every Honky-Tonk singer has tried to sound like Merle Haggard, and virtually every one of them has failed miserably.
In this collection you get 100 Haggard songs, and every one of 'em packs a mighty wallop.

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Rating: - Down Every Road by Merle Haggard
Item was purchased as a gift. It was received in a very timely manner. Recipient was very pleased and has reported no problems with the CD set.

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Rating: - Whole lotta Hag!
I've got a lot of Hag around the house, but you don't want to hear about my wife--let's talk music instead.

Seriously though Hag fans, it's hard to go wrong with this set despite it being plenty pricey. It's a very good cross section of his finest years and disc two especially is great stuff.

To me Merle Haggard music should be a seperate genre. It's almost not fair to compare him to other country artists because no matter how you slice it, he is so unbelievably good. That voice, at once clear, effortless and moving. And what a prolific song writer as well, Hag was cranking out classics faster than others could have put a bunch of garbage on vinyl.

His songs just hit home with you and are a great source of Americana. There will never be another one like him and yet you hardly ever hear a Hag tune on the radio these days, which is kind of like taking George Washington off of the dollar bill.

I love Hag's stuff, and my wife too by the way. You'll like this one also. I highly recommend it.

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Rating: - As good as country music gets
When you think of traditional country music, few names command the respect Merle Haggard does. There are perhaps dozens of Merle compilations, but I find "Down Every Road" is arguably the best showcase of his versatile career.

It's amazing to see how far Haggard's career progressed from the early 60's to now; this collection covers the vast majority of his hits through 1994 or so, with a few minor exceptions ("Movin' On" isn't included, for example). It's all here. All the stories that make country music great: drinkin', trains, love gained, love lost, good-boy-gone wrong, etc. The thing is, Merle's lived most of this. The listener can almost feel the pain in his voice in a lot of this material, and it's completely believable. I guess that's why I like him so much, and one of the reasons he's been so well received over the course of his lengthy career. He's a road warrior, a survivor. I would recommend this collection to any real country music fan, but it's priceless for true Hag fans. Worth every penny.

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Rating: - Not a good cover of Haggard's Career
I cant believe I wasted my money on this box. It does a a lousy job of covering anything other then his Capitol years (doesnt surprise me being a Capitol box set) and I dont believe it even does a good job of that. Its a good thing its out of print and I wouldnt recommend anyone wasting their time trying to find a copy.