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Merle Haggard’s Working Man’s Journey features six new cuts and six of his classics, newly re-recorded for the album. Hag’s sound still wears as fresh as ever, with his formidable lead guitar and worn shoe-leather voice that sounds like he’s singing to you on the front porch over a mason jar of white lightning.

Favorites sparkle with Haggard’s off-the-cuff attack, like on the frolicking lead-off cut, Shade Tree Fix-It Man, or the political lampoon Rainbow Stew. The low-key blue-collar anthem Workin’ Man’s Blues features a guitar like a south-bound train and a wailing harp by Mark Howard, while Kern River flows along in a mourning ¾ waltz with Bakersfield country charm.

But new cuts hold their own, too, and blend seamlessly with the classics. Haggard growls on through Like a Train Left the Tramp, a good-natured lament about a woman done gone, with Rob Ickes on a lively Dobro: “I had her believing I was the king of the camp / and she left me like a train left the tramp.”

A couple of cuts are noticeably weaker. In the Mountains to Forget feels forced and rote, and can’t quite find its own theme, while Songman seems a gratuitous wink at Haggard’s own storytelling skills, but fails to show ‘em off in the process: “Does anyone need a good songman? / I’ve got some good stories to tell.” Yes he does, but they show up better on other tunes, like If We Make It Through December, a touching ballad about a man who’s lost his job right before Christmas, and just wants to make it through the month without breaking his little girl’s heart.

It’s just that kind of storytelling that makes his lyrics so generally strong—not the clever poetry (though there’s some of that as well), but the way the man can paint a story most everyone can relate to.

For those who don’t know much about Haggard, this is the man The Encyclopedia of Country Music says is, “with the arguable exception of Hank Williams, the single most influential singer-songwriter in country music history.” With a career that’s spanned more than 40 years and shows few signs of flagging, Haggard has recorded more than 600 songs, around 250 of which he wrote himself, and has released around 75 feature albums. He’s had 38 number one hits, and was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 1977, followed by the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994.

I don’t agree with some of Haggard’s politics, which at times champion too much flag waving for my taste, like in Are the Good Times Really Over: “Stand up for the flag / and let’s all ring the liberty bell.” Here, as with his iconic 1969 hit, “Okie from Muskogee” (not on this album), Haggard seems to decry the kind of rebelliousness I think vital to any democracy worth the name. But that’s one of the beauties of music: it keeps the conversation going. I don’t need to agree with everything an artist says to enjoy listening, and I don’t mind having my hackles raised as long as I get a musical pay-off. With Hag, you sometimes get the former, but you almost always get the latter.

The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store packaging is attractive, but the liner notes are disappointingly stingy. Unfortunately for new listeners, they don’t specify which tracks are new and which are classics (the new tracks are: 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12), let alone provide any perspective on Hag’s prolific career. Still, the album gives a good sampling of Haggard’s style, and for old-time fans the new cuts are worth a listen.