Country legend Merle Haggard was a multifarious artist — play almost any of the many records he made in his long career, and you’ll note how he moves from the inspired to the banal and back again.

It’s fun to hear Willie Nelson, of all people, sing the famous lyric: “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee.” Not only because the Texas county legend is a famed pothead, but also because his dearly ...