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Merle Ronald Haggard was born on April 6, 1037 in Bakersfield, CA and is a country music singer, guitarist and songwriter. Coming out of prison in the 1960s, Haggard has become one of the true Goliaths in country music as a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist. His intensely cutting electric guitar helped him introduce the electric sound to country almost all by himself. Haggard and his band called The Strangers helped start the Bakersfield Sound, which is illustrated by twangy telecaster guitars, strong vocal harmonies and a tough edge; this edge wasn’t heard on the more polished Nashville Sound recordings of the same time period.
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About Merle Haggard
He sided with the growing outlaw country movement in the 1970s and has been successful in releasing albums through the 90s and 2000s. His songs exhibit undaunted personal honesty about common themes like love, loss, regret and redemption. Haggard made a sort of comeback in 2000 by signing with Anti, an independent record label; he released If I Could Only Fly and received critical acclaim for it. In 2001, he followed that up with Roots, Vol. 1, which is a collection of Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams and Hank Thompson covers and 3 Haggard originals.
This album was recorded in Haggard’s living room, had no overdubs and included his longtime band mates The Strangers and Frizzell’s original lead guitarist, Norman Stephens. He went on Larry King Live in December 2004 and spoke about his incarceration as a young man. His album, Chicago Wind, was released in October 2005 to mainly positive reviews. The album featured an anti-war song called “America First;” he grieves over the country’s economy and failing infrastructure and supports its soldiers in the song. He was supposed to perform at Little Rock’s Riverfest in 2008, but his concert was cancelled due to illness; 3 other concerts were also cancelled.
