Merle Haggard once named "Huntsville," a deep cut from his 1971 album Someday We'll Look Back, as the most personally cathartic song he ever wrote, despite it never becoming a hit. Speaking to Uncut magazine in 2010, Haggard explained that songwriting had unexpectedly become a form of therapy for him, allowing him to vent frustrations that might otherwise go unheard. The revelation offers insight into how deeply personal and emotionally significant lesser-known tracks could be for the country star, even when the public and radio largely overlooked them.

Co-written with Red Simpson, "Huntsville" is a defiant prison song in which the narrator, sentenced by a "white-haired judge in Dallas," plots repeated escape attempts. While the title track and "Carolyn" from the same album became major hits, "Huntsville" received minimal airplay. Notably, the song's autobiographical tone is misleading: Haggard actually served time at San Quentin State Prison in California, not Huntsville, and unlike his song's narrator, he never attempted to escape, despite having had the opportunity during his incarceration.