Personnel includes: Merle Haggard (vocals, electric & steel guitar, dobro); Abe Manuel, Jr. (acoustic guitar, accordion); Randy Mason, Joe Manuel (acoustic guitar); Norm Hamlet (dobro); Owen Bradley (piano); Eddie Curtis (bass); Biff Adam (drums); The Anita Kerr Singers (background vocals).
Compilation producers: Merle Haggard, Roy Horton.
Recorded between 1996 and 1999. Includes liner notes by Kevin Lamb.
A celebration of early country music and its songwriters, THE PEER SESSIONS features Merle Haggard and friends informally performing a dozen classic songs from the catalog of country recording pioneer Ralph Peer's publishing company. Peer recorded such early country stars as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers in the 1920s and '30s. Haggard sings songs by a variety of influential writers, from Texas Playboys singer Tommy Duncan, whose Western swing standard "Right or Wrong" is a highlight, to Jimmie Rodgers' "Whippin' That Old T.B." He also performs "Hang on to the Memories" with its writer, former Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis, who had a parallel career as a country music artist and also penned the evergreen "You Are My Sunshine."