The Running Kind

The Running Kind is the definitive book on Merle Haggard, illuminating the art of country songwriting through the work of one poet with a guitar who both challenged and emboldened aspects of the patriarchy while complicating our understanding of patriotism.

— Alice Randall

A clear, unflinchingly critical, reading of the songs—in Cantwell’s pages they are creative acts, not real, disguised, or fake autobiography—and one that lets the songs go anywhere: from a subtle yet flesh-and-blood class analysis, to an argument against the authenticity argument, to a focus on precisely how a song feels its way into its own skin, its own body (making you always want more…)

— Greil Marcus

In the 2013 iteration of this pioneering book, David Cantwell astutely outlined Merle Haggard's life while giving the artistic legacy that his many albums constitute the detailed attention that legacy deserved. In this expanded revision, he rethinks the story to argue that Haggard wasn't merely a great American singer and songwriter. He was a great American artist—period.

— Robert Christgau

One of the best music books I've read in a long time.

— Dave Marsh

Cantwell captures why Haggard's best-known songs still matter while never shying away from honest critiques of weaker selections that never made it into the classic country canon. Ultimately, this warts-and-all look at a half-century-spanning back catalog gives its subject his due.

— Wide Open Country

Sharp-eyed and sharp-eared insight...abounds in [Cantwell's] book...The Running Kind paints Merle Haggard in a broad and nuanced American cultural landscape, rather than the tight corners that Nixon, the counterculture, country fans, and Haggard himself frequently painted him into.

— New York Journal of Books

If you want to read the definitive book on Merle Haggard, this is the one...The beauty of Cantwell’s book lies in his in-depth, astute, and entertaining close readings of Hag’s songs and the covers of those songs by others, from Dylan to Bobby 'Blue' Bland.

— No Depression

A remarkable book by one of Merle's most astute scholars.

— Lawyers, Guns & Money

In essays on the songs, eras and influences that shaped Haggard’s life and legacy, Cantwell makes a case for Haggard's genius not by leaving out the contradictions that are evident in his work, but by shining a light on them.

— Holler