In 1969, a group of Nashville studio musicians came together to make a record of instrumental versions of popular tunes by the likes of Bob Dylan, Mason Williams and the Beatles. Taking the name "Area Code 615," they didn't have a front man and (perhaps in part as a result) didn't have a hit, but still accomplished what assumedly they set out to do: They made a couple of relaxed records playing familiar songs and showcasing their talents.

The band calling itself "Bryan and the Haggards" isn't quite of the same pedigree, but there's something similar about the two breeds. Saxophonist Bryan Murray and his quintet of Yankee kids are something a touch more smart-assed than that older outfit and hell, times ain't what they was back then neither. But even still, Murray and company's approach to the music of Merle Haggard is relaxed and (in their way) respectful.

Murray's band includes Jon Irabagon on second saxophone and Moppa Elliot on bass, both of the wiseacre jazz outfit Mostly Other People Do the Killing, as well as guitarist Jon Lundbom who leads the group Big Five Chord (which also includes Elliot and Irabagon, and all of whom record for Elliot's Hot Cup Records), so the guys know how to play together, and know how to have a good time together as well. In this nicely LP-length collection of seven songs they do lovingly unfaithful renditions of Haggard's hits ("Swinging Doors," "Lonesome Fugitive," "Trouble in Mind") and a few lesser known tunes, sometimes stepping out further than the Nashville crowd might cotton to but never losing track of what they're playing.

While it might be mighty easy to make fun of country music, that's not what they're about. And in fact, they've made a smart choice in focusing on Haggard. The other '70s outlaws wouldn't quite work as well. Willie's too jazzy, Johnny Cash too simple, Jennings, Paycheck and Coe too, well, too country really. But Haggard had a sense for melody unusual within the persona-and-lyric orientation that drives country music. And while the guitar and saxophones push into overdrive sometimes, and Elliot can't resist a sung-along bass solo, the Haggards always respect the melody.