Merle Haggard – 20 Greatest Hits (CD)

Merle Haggard wrote from the inside out, drawing on his time at San Quentin and his Bakersfield roots to build a body of work that influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to Phish, who covered "Mama Tried" regularly in the early '90s. The Bakersfield Sound he helped define with Buck Owens was a direct rebuke to the polished Nashville establishment, and its raw, Telecaster-driven honesty still cuts through decades later.