Songwriter Liz Anderson

Songwriter Liz Anderson passed away on October 31.

You may not know her, but you do know her songs.

After all, what would've Merle Haggard named his band, if not for this song:



And you probably thought that Merle wrote this one, but he didn't:



Apparently, embedding the video for this song has been "disabled by request" (of someone ~ I always wonder about that), but Liz wrote this for Merle and Bonnie (when there still was a Merle and Bonnie):

Sure, Liz wrote a lot of songs for her daughter, Lynn Anderson. What mother wouldn't? And what daughter wouldn't say, "Hey, Mom. I need some hit songs. Can you write some for me?" Lynn had a built-in hit machine, right at home.

Like this one:



No performance video for this, but this is another big Lynn Anderson hit (and what a sweet voice!):



There were a lot of songs written for Lynn by Liz. Unfortunately, these are all apparently relegated to the dark ages, because you can't find any videos. Nor can you even find the CD's. I seriously don't get it. Good music is good music.

When Lynn was signed to Chart Records, those albums were some of the best country albums ever. Now they're not even worth a re-release?

I looked, and I looked, but I couldn't find the album titled, "Songs My Mother Wrote", except for this link.

But if you are even slightly interested in the history of good country music, you could do way worse than buying this:

The other thing, besides great music, that endears me to Liz Anderson (and to Lynn Anderson, for that matter) is that she is from Grand Forks, North Dakota, just like me.

And, for what it's worth, I am apparently related to Liz and Lynn (at least that's what my mom and my aunt told me, and they wouldn't lie).

So, ignoring the obvious lack of palpable evidence, trust me. Liz Anderson was a great country songwriter.

And she even recorded some songs, occasionally.

Here's one that I found:



And Merle says, thank you for giving me a name for my band.