HAGGARD IN AN UPBEAT MOOD

“KERN RIVER.” Merle Haggard. Epic. Haggard’s umpteenth album for his third major label finds the Lonesome Stranger in an upbeat mood. “Big Butter and Egg Man” is the up-tempo track that sets the tone here. It and several cuts like it are long on swinging horn arrangements and Tommy Duncan vocal chops that separate Haggard’s Western music from everybody else’s country. He shows his downbeat flip side in the title track, a memorable tale of a drowned lover that he sings with trademark conviction. “There’s Somebody Else on Your Mind” is a little gem, but the remainder is fair to middlin’.