Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard – Pancho & Lefty (1982/2015) [HDTracks FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Pancho & Lefty is a honky tonk country album by two of the biggest names in outlaw country, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. The album was produced by Haggard, Nelson, and Chips Moman. The title track was written by Townes Van Zandt. The album was very well-received by critics, and reached #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and #37 on the Top 200 chart.

On Pancho & Lefty, their first album together, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson managed a rare feat: an album by two legends that lives up to, and at one point exceeds, expectations. In 1982, both artists were at the top of their game, Haggard just having released a great comeback album in Big City, and Nelson in the midst of a creative and commercial peak. The centerpiece of the album is the title track. Penned by Texas songwriter Townes Van Zandt, the ballad of two renegades and the respect they earned from the law is the perfect vehicle for Haggard and Nelson, both of whom managed to achieve legendary status in spite of being outsiders to the Nashville establishment. The song’s production enhances its power; it is polished without becoming slick (note Nelson’s double-tracked guitar solo), and there’s power in reserve — in the wrong hands, this could easily have become a bombastic, over the top performance. Nothing else on the album comes close to the majesty of “Pancho and Lefty.” That’s not to say that the rest is not good, though. The other songs are all relaxed ruminations on life, from the joys of taking it easy on the throwaway “It’s My Lazy Day” to the pain of love lost on Nelson’s chestnut “Half a Man.” Throughout, Haggard and Nelson duet in equal measure; one gets the sense that this is a collaboration in every sense. The sequence of “Reasons to Quit” and “No Reason to Quit” is an inspired bit of programming, both honky tonk songs of the first rank. Pancho & Lefty was followed in 1987 by Seashores of Old Mexico, a far less successful collaboration. ~~AllMusic Review by Martin Monkman

Tracklist:
1. Pancho and Lefty 04:47
2. It’s My Lazy Day 02:50
3. My Mary 03:15
4. Half a Man 04:13
5. Reasons to Quit 03:32
6. No Reason to Quit 03:15
7. Still Water Runs the Deepest 02:46
8. My Life’s Been a Pleasure 03:24
9. All the Soft Places to Fall 03:34
10. Opportunity to Cry 04:01

Personnel:
Merle Haggard, vocal, guitar
Willie Nelson, vocal, guitar
Grady Martin, guitar
Reggie Young, guitar
Lewis Talley, guitar
Chips Moman, guitar
Johnny Christopher, guitar
Mike Leech, bass
Gene Chrisman, drums
Johnny Gimble, fiddle, mandolin
Bobby Emmons, keyboards
Bobby Wood, keyboards
Mickey Raphael, harmonica
Don Markham, saxophone, trumpet

Download:

mqs.link_WillieNelsnMerleHaggardPanchLefty19822015HDTracks2496.rar

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