The album includes Haggard explaining the origins of each song with spoken introductions while praising the talents of those who inspired him, such as Tommy Collins and Bob Wills.

According to the liner notes to the 1994 box set Down Every Road, "Daddy Frank" derived from stories his wife Bonnie Owens had told him about her own mother, who had a hearing problem, and her father, who wasn't blind but loved to play harmonica.

Haggard wed their story to that of the Maddox Brothers and Rose, who had moved from Alabama to California by boxcar during the Depression before forming their famous hillbilly boogie band.

My aunt and uncle...lived in a canvass-covered cabin beside the railroad track in Houston, California, and I got to visit them once in a while and really get to know those people and see the impact that the Depression had on them..."[citation needed] Let Me Tell You About a Song was reissued along with Hag on CD by Beat Goes On Records in 2002.

"[3] Music critic Robert Christgau wrote "But despite its mawkish moments—especially Tommy Collins's dead-mommy song—the material defines Haggard's sensibility in a winning way, and since not one of the songs is great in itself I guess the commentary must do it.