merle haggard, cuntry music legend, kaput at 79

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Merle Haggard, Country Music Legend, Dies at 79

variety.com
April 6, 2016



Country legend Merle Haggard, often called “the Poet of the Common Man,” whose music reflected his hardscrabble roots and hard-living ways as well as a tenderness that made him a revered songwriter, has died at his home near Redding, Calif. He was 79.

The Associated Press confirmed his death.

Haggard along with fellow Bakersfield, Calif., superstar Buck Owens defined the West Coast sound of country music in the 1960s and ’70s.

Emerging from the central California city’s raucous honky-tonky country music scene of the post WWII-era, first recording for the local Tally label and then for Capitol Records, Haggard became a towering figure, producing 38 chart-topping records along with his longtime recording and touring band, the Strangers. Among his biggest hits were the controversial “Okie From Muskogee” — alternately seen as a reactionary Nixon-era anthem or a good-hearted spoof of heartland mores — as well as enduring and much-covered ballads such as “Today I Started Loving You Again,” “If We Make It Through December,” “Sing Me Back Home” and “Hungry Eyes.” His uptempo “drinking” songs such as “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “Swingin’ Doors,” “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” and “Working Man Blues” helped create the prototype of 1960s and ’70s country honky-tonk hits.

Two of his best-regarded albums were tributes to early country star Jimmie Rodgers (“Same Train, A Different Time,” 1969) and Western swing bandleader Bob Wills (“A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World,” 1970).

Haggard scored with several film and TV hits over the years, most notably penning and singing the eponymous theme song for the 1974 TV series “Movin’ On,” as well as chart-toppers “Barroom Buddies” and “Misery and Gin” for Clint Eastwood’s film “Bronco Billy.” “Mama Tried” was featured in the crime film “Killers Three,” in which Haggard also co-starred.

Haggard was born in Oildale, Calif., to Oklahoma immigrants who migrated west during the Great Depression, and he quite literally grew up in a boxcar, albeit one converted into a home. His father died when Haggard was 9, and in his early life he committed a series of petty crimes, leading to longer and longer incarcerations. But Haggard was also gaining a reputation in the Bakersfield area as a first-rate singer and instrumentalist. Holding his own onstage with his idol, country music great Lefty Frizzell, was an indication of the career ahead of him, once he put crime and punishment behind him.

A botched robbery, however, saw him tried as an adult and sent to San Quentin, where he spent three years. Haggard recalled that seeing Johnny Cash onstage in San Quentin in 1958 was a particular inspiration, and the two men later became close friends and mutual fans.

Once out of prison, Haggard worked blue-collar day jobs and played the rowdy honky-tonks of Bakersfield at night, which led to him cutting several tracks for Tally.
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