Branded Man
| Branded Man | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Merle Haggard | ||||
| Released | August 28, 1967 | |||
| Recorded | August 1966-1967 Capitol Records, Hollywood, CA |
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| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 32:29 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Ken Nelson | |||
| Merle Haggard chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Pitchfork Media | (8.8/10) |
Branded Man is the fourth studio album by American country singer Merle Haggard. It was released on Capitol Records in 1967.
After a troubled youth that saw him in and out of youth reformatories, Haggard was finally sent to Bakersfield jail for a bungled robbery and, after an escape attempt, transferred to San Quentin prison on February 21, 1958. He was released in 1960. By 1967, he was on the cusp of country stardom when he hit number one on the country singles chart with the Liz Anderson composition "I'm A Lonesome Fugitive." Understandably, Haggard was concerned about the effect his time in prison might have on his career but, as Daniel Cooper writes in the liner notes to the 1994 box set Down Every Road, it had little effect at all: "It's unclear when or where Merle first acknowledged to the public that his prison songs were rooted in personal history, for to his credit, he doesn't seem to have made some big splash announcement. In a May 1967 profile in Music City News, his prison record is never mentioned. But in July 1968, in the very same publication, it's spoken of as if it were common knowledge." Haggard would be legally pardoned for his past crimes by California's Governor Ronald Reagan in 1971.
The single "Branded Man" hit number one on the US country music charts in 1967, the first of four straight number ones Haggard would score in the next two years. The song is a little reminiscent of an old Roy Acuff song called "Branded Wherever I Go," which producer Ken Nelson had recorded with the Louvin Brothers in 1962. Branded Man kicked off an incredible artistic run for Haggard; in 2013 Haggard biographer David Cantwell states, "The immediate successors to I'm a Lonesome Fugitive - Branded Man in 1967 and, in '68, Sing Me Back Home and The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde - were among the finest albums of their respective years." Haggard wrote or co-wrote seven of the album's twelve tracks, which feature many of the same session players who appeared on his previous two albums, including guitarists James Burton and Glen Campbell, and steel guitarist Ralph Mooney. Also contributing were Strangers guitarist Roy Nichols and Bonnie Owens. Owens co-wrote two of the album selections with Haggard, while Bakersfield pioneer and Haggard mentor Tommy Collins had a hand in writing four songs.
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