Maps of Music

Seashores of Old Mexico (1987)

Where the lyrics of Seashores of Old Mexico take you, and where it was really made.

Its only chart single was a cover of a 1979 Blaze Foley song, and that single peaked at number 58 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Key places

Recorded at Pedernales Recording (1987)

Recording site Pedernales Studio — The album was recorded at Pedernales Recording in Spicewood, Texas. The map point uses the town centre, not the exact building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Seashores of Old Mexico: studio album by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson
• Released in 1987
• Sequel to the 1983 duet album Pancho and Lefty
• Pancho and Lefty is described as enormously successful
• Backed by the Strangers
• Ten tracks, including covers of Lennon and McCartney's Yesterday and Blaze Foley's If I Could Only Fly

Background

• Predecessor: Pancho and Lefty, the 1983 duet album by the same two singers
• This album continues the duet partnership of Haggard and Nelson on record
• Both singers take the lead vocals
• Haggard plays guitar and fiddle; Nelson plays guitar

Recording

• Recorded at Pedernales Recording in Spicewood, Texas
• Merle Haggard: vocals, guitar, fiddle
• Willie Nelson: vocals, guitar
• The Strangers: Roy Nichols (guitar), Norm Hamlet (steel guitar), Clint Strong (guitar), Mark Yeary (piano), Dennis Hromek (bass), Biff Adams (drums), Jimmy Belken (fiddle), Gary Church (trumpet), Don Markham (saxophone)
• Guests: Johnny Gimble (fiddle), Spencer Starnes (bass), Dean Reynolds (upright bass), Donna Faye (backing vocals)

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Willie Hugh Nelson on April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas.
• Wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band, Bohemian Polka, as a guitarist at age nine.
• Attended Baylor University for two years before dropping out to pursue music.
• Moved to Nashville in 1960 and joined Ray Price's band as a bassist.

Career

• Songs such as "Crazy" (Patsy Cline), "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Pretty Paper" became hits for other artists.
• Debut album ...And Then I Wrote was released in 1962; joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1965.
• Helped lead the outlaw country movement after moving to Austin, Texas in 1972.
• Red Headed Stranger (1975) was a critically acclaimed concept album; the single "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" became his first number one hit.
• Co-founded Farm Aid in 1985 with Neil Young and John Mellencamp.
• Acted in over 30 films, including The Electric Horseman (1979).
• Received a Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance for "Ride Me Back Home" (2019).
• Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• AllMusic's Martin Monkman believes the album pales in comparison to its predecessor
• Monkman writes that little of what made the earlier album so great is in evidence
• At times, Monkman says, the album sounds like a Merle Haggard record with Willie Nelson on hand as support

Reappraisal

• Haggard biographer David Cantwell is especially critical of Haggard's singing on Yesterday in his 2013 book The Running Kind
• Cantwell says Haggard's rich baritone, in especially fine form on the album's other tracks, feels unexpectedly pumped with air on Yesterday
• Cantwell says Haggard's phrases merely crumple on that track

Records

• Only charting single: a cover of Blaze Foley's 1979 song If I Could Only Fly
• The single peaked at number 58 on the 1987 Billboard Hot Country Songs singles chart

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Blaze Foley wrote If I Could Only Fly in 1979; this album's cover of it is the only charting single
• Yesterday is credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney and runs 3:26 on the track listing
• Jimmy the Broom is credited to Haggard and Freddy Powers
• Shotgun and a Pistol is credited to Haggard alone
• Cantwell's criticism of Haggard's singing targets the Yesterday track

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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