Merle Haggard - Songs

ABOUT

Merle Haggard (April 6, 1937 - April 6, 2016) was a celebrated country singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who became famous beginning in the 1960s. With over 100 hits on the Country charts from 1963-2015, Haggard scored a whopping 38 chart-toppers that include such pop-country crossover favorites as "Okie From Muskogee" (1969) and "If We Make It Through December" (1973).

Haggard was born in Oildale, California near Bakersfield. His family, who had migrated from Oklahoma during the Great Depression, struggled financially and his father died unexpectedly of a brain hemorrhage when Merle was 9 years old. Soon thereafter, he became rebellious and turned to petty crime while also working as a truck driver and other odd jobs throughout his teens. Despite his troubled youth, he got an early start in music teaching himself to play the guitar at age 12. He developed a lifelong love of performing that began at age 14 when he attended a Lefty Frizzell concert and was invited by the country star to perform with him onstage after hearing him sing along with him backstage. In 1958, after attending a Johnny Cash concert at San Quentin where he was serving a sentence for burglary, Haggard famously turned his life around and began his music career playing for the prison's country music band. He was released from San Quentin in 1960, and, in 1972, pardoned by then-California governor Ronald Reagan for all his past crimes.

Haggard began recording with Tally Records after his release from San Quentin and made his debut on the Country charts in 1963 with "Sing A Sad Song." In 1966, he had the first in a long string of #1 hits with "The Fugitive." With his band, The Strangers, Haggard helped create the Bakersfield sound, a rougher-edged country music genre that makes use of traditional country steel guitars and newer vocal harmony styles. Later on, he became a major figure in the Outlaw Country movement that advocated a more hardcore style as a reaction to the slick, strings-laden Nashville sound that had been in vogue. He continued to release many successful albums throughout his long career and toured actively up to shortly before his passing on his 79th birthday.

Haggard's numerous honors and accolades included several CMA Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor (2010), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), a BMI Icon Award (2006), and being inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), Country Music Hall of Fame (1994), and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame (1997).

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SONGS

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Merle Haggard And The Strangers

Merle Haggard

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