''I Am What I Am'' is the sixty-second studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled af ...

. It was released on April 20, 2010 by

Vanguard Records Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a n ...

. The album peaked at number 18 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales a ...

chart. The final song, “It's Gonna Be Me,” was only released on Amazon.com, despite having received positive review as a song which stands out with a heavy bass line and social-critical lyrics.Best Music Writing 2010 p240 "One tune, called “It's Gonna Be Me,” stands out with its heavy bass line and lyrics that stake Haggard's claim to singing about what's wrong with the country today. “Who's gonna say the people's mad?” he growls. “Who's gonna say the music's .."

Track listing

All songs written by Merle Haggard except where noted. #"I've Seen It Go Away" – 3:00 #"Pretty When It's New" – 3:12 #"Oil Tanker Train" – 3:02 #"Live and Love Always" – 2:30 #"The Road to My Heart" (Freddy Powers) – 2:50 #"How Did You Find Me Here" (M. Haggard, Theresa Lane Haggard) – 3:55 #"We're Falling in Love Again" – 3:31 #"Bad Actor" (Doug Colosio, M. Haggard,

Scott Joss Scott Joss (born 1962) is a songwriter, guitarist, mandolin player, singer, and fiddle player primarily in the American Country music traditionJohn 'Scott' Golosio: ''So, what kind of PEOPLE are these musicians?'', http://www.golosio.com/bios.ht ...

) – 3:28 #"Down at the End of the Road" – 3:10 #"Stranger in the City" – 2:09 #"Mexican Bands" – 3:27 #"I Am What I Am" – 2:38 #"It's Gonna Be Me" - 3:27 (Amazon Exclusive)

Personnel

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

, guitar, lead vocals, background vocals *

Norm Hamlet Norm Hamlet is an American steel guitarist and a member of Merle Haggard's The Strangers band for the past 49 years.Terry Downs: ''The Strangers'', http://www.terrydownsmusic.com/Archive/strangers_article.pdf, n.d., downloaded May 6, 2012.The Ste ...

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

*Biff Adam -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Don Markham -

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

*Gary Church -

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

*Red Lane - guitar *Doug Colosio -

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

*Ben Haggard - drums,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, soloist, background vocals *Theresa Lane Haggard - lead and background vocals *Tim Howard - guitar, soloist *Rob Ickes -

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

*Scott Joss - fiddle, guitar, background vocals *George Receli - drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, background vocals *

Reggie Young Reggie Grimes Young Jr. (December 12, 1936 – January 17, 2019) was an American musician who was lead guitarist in the American Sound Studio house band, The Memphis Boys, and was a leading session musician. He played on various recordings with ...

- guitar

Chart performance

References

{{Authority control 2010 albums Merle Haggard albums Vanguard Records albums