Kern River (album)
| Kern river | ||||
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| Studio album by Merle Haggard | ||||
| Released | 1985 | |||
| Recorded | Eleven Eleven Studio, Nashville | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer | Grady Martin | |||
| Merle Haggard chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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Kern River is the fortieth studio album by American recording artist Merle Haggard, released in 1985. It reached number 8 on the Billboard country albums chart.
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).
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."
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