Blue Jungle

Blue Jungle
Studio album by Merle Haggard
Released 1990
Genre Country
Length 29:16
Label Curb
Producer Merle Haggard, Grady Martin, Mark Yeary
Merle Haggard chronology
5:01 Blues
(1989)		 Blue Jungle
(1990)		 1994
(1994)

Blue Jungle is the forty-seventh studio album by American recording artist Merle Haggard, with backing by The Strangers, released in 1990. It was a commercial disappointment, peaking at number 47 on the Billboard country albums chart. It was co-produced by Mark Yeary, keyboardist of The Strangers.

Background

Blue Jungle marked Haggard's first album with Curb after his run on Epic Records ended with his 1989 album 5:01 Blues. Two songs, "My Home Is in the Street" (co-written with wife Teresa) and "Under the Bridge", deal with the topic of homelessness. "Driftwood" is updated from the version that appeared on Haggard's 1979 MCA LP Serving 190 Proof.

Curb released "Me and Crippled Soldiers" as the B-side to the single "When It Rains It Pours", a ballad that peaked at number 60 on the charts, Haggard's lowest charting single ever.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]

In his biography of Haggard, David Cantwell takes exception to "Me and Crippled Soldiers", noting that Haggard's line "We might as well burn the Bill of Rights as well" makes no sense, asking, "What good is a Bill of Rights if you can't practice the liberties it enshrines?" He also criticizes the recording itself, maintaining, "Merle's Bakersfield licks, normally switchblade sharp, have been processed into butter knives... Illogical, lifeless as a corpse, 'Me and Crippled Soldiers' might be the nadir of the Haggard catalogue."[3] The AllMusic review states: "...his songwriting expertise still remained intact...Blue Jungle is a glimpse of a performer with nothing to lose, away from the spotlight yet very much engaged with his material."[2]

Track listing

  1. "Blue Jungle" (Merle Haggard, Freddy Powers) – 2:27
  2. "Sometimes I Dream" (Haggard) – 2:57
  3. "My Home Is in the Street" (Haggard, Teresa Lane Haggard) – 2:27
  4. "When It Rains It Pours" – 3:27
  5. "Me and Crippled Soldiers" (Haggard, Bonnie Owens) – 3:12
  6. "Under the Bridge" (Haggard) – 2:56
  7. "Lucky Old Colorado" (Red Simpson) – 3:10
  8. "Driftwood" (Haggard) – 2:47
  9. "Never No Mo' Blues" (Elsie McWilliams, Jimmie Rodgers) – 3:01
  10. "A Bar in Bakersfield" (Haggard, Powers) – 2:52

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ AllMusic Charts
  2. 1 2 "Blue Jungle > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  3. ↑ Cantwell, David (2013). Merle Haggard: The Running Kind. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-71771-8.
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