Workin’ Man Blues

And, uh, I got to stand on the stage with Daryl Singletary.

If I recall, I think I did Working Man Blues.

I'm not sure.

And I wanted to do, obviously wanted to do a Daryl song.

Hey.

I go home tired in the evenin', sing a little bit of these Workin' Man Blues.

Pick me one.

[upbeat guitar music]

20 years ago, he released his first collection of these get-togethers under the title Not Too Far From the Tree on the late great Sugar Hill Records.

It included tracks with Norman Blake, David Greer, Ricky Skaggs, and his first guitar hero, Doc Watson.

Now, you may well have discerned that we've been listening to Doc Watson here, and this is from the new Roots and Branches collection, Merle Haggard's Workin' Man Blues.

It is a leftover field recording that Bryan was surprised to find when he went back through his old tapes in his archives.

... "I am sitting here with Merle Haggard," and I just, I couldn't believe it.

I finally snapped out of it, and we had, we had some conversations, but, uh, you know, probably, I would imagine, it's probably one of the best compliments I've ever had in my life, was, was Merle looking me right in the eyes and saying, "You did a good job on Working Man Blues."

Mm.

And I'll never, I'll never forget that.