Artist	Song
Lefty Frizzell	Mom and Dad's Waltz
from Look What Thoughts Will Do (1997)
Jimmie Rodgers	Blue Yodel No. 4 (California Blues)
from Essential Jimmie Rodgers (1997)
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys	Time Changes Everything
from Legends of Country Music: The Best of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (2006)
Marty Robbins	Devil Woman
from The Essential Marty Robbins (2005)
Hank Williams	(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle
from Hank Williams: 40 Greatest Hits (1988)
Elvis Presley	Love Me Tender
from Elvis: 30 #1 Hits (2002)
Tommy Collins	If You Can't Bite, Don't Growl
from Columbia Country Classics, Vol. 3: Americana (1990)
Wynn Stewart	Another Day, Another Dollar
from Nashville Country Guys, Vol. 3 (2007)
Buck Owens	Under the Influence of Love
from You're For Me (1995)
The Maddox Brothers & Rose	Philadelphia Lawyer
from America's Most Colorful Hillbilly Band, Vol. 1 (2011)
Johnny Cash	Folsom Prison Blues
from The Essential Johnny Cash (1955-1983) (1998)
George Jones	She Thinks That I Still Care
from I am What I am (2008)
Ray Price	Invitation to the Blues
from The Essential Ray Price 1951-1962 (1991)
Ernest Tubb	Walking the Floor Over You
from Ernest Tubb: The Definitive Collection (2006)
Woody Guthrie	Blowin' Down This Road (I Ain't Going to Be Treated This Way)
from Dust Bowl Ballads (2000)

Comment:

For a sound as red-white-and-blue as Merle's, you'd have to dig down deep to the roots of American music . . . and that's exactly what he did. Bakersfield Sound godfather Tommy Collins not only inspired the Haggard song "Leonard" (which was Tommy's real first name), but he also puts a backbeat — and a bounce — into the tongue-in-jowl jest of "If You Can't Bite, Don't Growl." Honky-tonk hero Lefty Frizzell wasn't just an idol of Haggard's, but he was also a key inspiration for his vocal style, as you can hear in the twangy devotion of "Mom and Dad's Waltz." And it doesn't get much rootsier than fellow Dust Bowl refugee Woody Guthrie, who serves up a "don't tread on me" take on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in "Blowin' Down This Road (I Ain't Going to Be Treated This Way)." With tutors and teachers ranging from Elvis Presley to Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, Merle took his cues from the best in the biz.

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