A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World: Or, My Salute To Bob Wills
If any one album deserves credit for ushering in the Western swing revival, it's this previously buried treasure from 1970. Haggard taught himself to play fiddle before recording this album and augmented his band with members of Wills's pioneering Texas Playboys, including guitarist Eldon Shamblin and fiddler Johnny Gimble. Merle would become a more fluid fiddler in the future, and the Strangers would swing more cohesively, but that doesn't take away from the chemistry or adventurousness in this, his first effort in the genre. And he was resourceful enough to pick some tunes ("I Knew the Moment I Lost You") that remain obscure even today.--John Morthland