Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard (born April 6, 1937, Oildale, California, U.S.—died April 6, 2016, near Redding, California) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, one of the most popular country music performers of the late 20th century, with nearly 40 number one country hits between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s.

Haggard’s parents moved from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl to the Bakersfield area of California, and he grew up in a converted boxcar. His father died when he was 9 years old, and, by the time he was 14, he was engaged in a life of petty crime and truancy, with frequent stays in juvenile facilities. His escapades eventually led to incarceration (1957–60) in the California State Prison at San Quentin. (Singles that reflect that experience include “Branded Man” [1967] and “Sing Me Back Home” [1968].)

Haggard was already performing music when he went to prison, and he resumed working in bars and clubs after his release. He began playing with Wynn Stewart and Buck Owens, practitioners of the stripped-down hard-driving “Bakersfield sound” in country music, and his first recording was Stewart’s “Sing a Sad Song” (1964). Haggard had his first chart topper three years later with “The Fugitive” (1967; later called “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive”). There is a sombre cast to many of the songs he wrote—including “The Bottle Let Me Down” (1966), “Mama Tried” (1968), “Hungry Eyes” (1969), and “If We Make It Through December” (1973)—that in part reflects his difficult youth. He also wrote “Okie From Muskogee” (1969), his best-known recording, a novelty song that became controversial for its apparent attack on hippies. Also popular was the patriotic anthem “The Fightin’ Side of Me” (1970), though his music was rarely political and more frequently and empathetically drew on the lives of the working class and the poor and downtrodden.

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Haggard possessed a supple baritone voice, and his repertoire ranged from early jazz and country songs to contemporary tunes. He often recorded the songs of other writers, including western swing bandleader Bob Wills, one of his formative inspirations, whom he honoured with the album A Tribute to the Best Damned Fiddle Player in the World (1970). A multi-instrumentalist himself, Haggard was known for the high quality and versatility of his accompanying bands, which by the 1970s included some of Wills’s former sidemen.

Haggard won numerous awards from the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music, and in 1984 he captured a Grammy Award for best country vocal performance for “That’s the Way Love Goes.” He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1994) and the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2007). In 2010 Haggard was named a Kennedy Center honoree.