Mama Tried

Mama Tried came after four number ones in two years and peaked at number four on the country albums chart in 1969. Ken Nelson produced; Haggard sang and played guitar with Roy Nichols on guitar, Norman Hamlet on steel, George French on piano, Jerry Ward on bass and Eddie Burris on drums, with Bonnie Owens on harmony and Glen Campbell and James Burton on guitar. Along with three of his own songs it holds Dolly Parton's "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)", which he cut months before her own version, and Curly Putman's "Green, Green Grass of Home".

It was reissued in 1996 by BGO with I'm a Lonesome Fugitive, and in 2006 by Capitol Nashville with Pride in What I Am and five bonus tracks. AllMusic gave it five stars, and Pitchfork 9.2 out of 10 for a reissue. Rolling Stone's Andy Wickham wrote in 1969 that Haggard looks the part and sounds the part because he is the part.