Merle Haggard & the Strangers - I'm a Lonesome Fugitive

This early Capitol album contains the haunting "House of Memories." Haggard begins to really let his roots show on this one -- see "Rough and Rowdy Ways," the Jimmie Rodgers classic. In this great early period Haggard, while seeming entirely contemporary, could evoke the Ghosts of Country Past in an absolutely convincing way without nostalgia or imitation. ~ George Bedard, All Music Guide