Merle Haggard
Born on April 6, 1937 in Oildale, California, Merle Haggard was a country music legend, well known for being a pioneer in the Bakersfield Sound subgenre of country. Growing up in the tailend of the Great Depression, his family did not come from money and in fact was a part of the Okie exodus to California to escape the Depression’s effects within Oklahoma. [1] The death of his father was an enormous blow to Haggard’s emotional state. It led him downtrodden and disillusioned with his life and sent him down a short lived path of recidivism. It was during this time that Haggard found himself at a performance of Johnny Cash while in San Quentin Prison, his main drive to start performing country music. [2] These themes of isolation, family, and crime all remained within Haggard’s music throughout his lifetime.
By the 1960s, Haggard was out of prison and was on the track to becoming a country star. He was hired as a studio guitarist and was featured on minor top 10 releases, but this was enough to get the attention of Capitol Records. [3] By 1967, Haggard released his first number one record, “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive”. [1] It drew on what he knew in life: frequent prison time and living as an almost anti-hero. He had attained the status as a hard drunken outlaw in the popular eye. Around this time, Haggard married Bonnie Owens and started the band The Strangers, who would often serve as his backing band for studio albums and live performances. During this era, Haggard wrote and released some of his most famous works, such as “Mama Tried” (1968) and “Branded Man” (1967). The late 1960s saw Haggard tackle more patriotic and anti-protest themes with “Okie From Muskogee” (1969) and “Fightin’ Side of Me” (1970). [3]
Prior to the date of Farm Aid, Haggard had publicly made plans to charter an Amtrak train and ride the rails from Bakersfield, California all the way to Farm Aid in Champaign. [4] Along the way, he and his band would make stops at dozens of small towns and larger cities, raising awareness for the ongoing farm crisis. For this grand endeavor, Haggard would need around $600,000, requiring multiple corporate sponsors. However, this fell through and no such campaign trail took place. The planned route would include stops in Flagstaff, Albuquerque, El Paso and St. Louis.
When it came time for Farm Aid, Haggard brought his band The Strangers with him to Champaign. While the full concert set is presumably lost media, his performance included the songs “Natural High” from his 1984 album "It's All in the Name" and a cover of the Johnny Cash hit “Folsom Prison Blues”.
Merle Haggard continued to tour and release albums consistently for the remainder of his life. In 1994, Haggard was formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum; in 2006, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award and in 2010, he accepted a Kennedy Center Honor, some of the most prestigious honors in the arts. On April 6, 2016 Haggard passed away on his birthday due to complications from double pneumonia at the age of 79. Forever remembered as one of Country-Western’s greats and synonymous with the words “country music”.
(Written by Hunter Lindquist)
1. Manuel, Jeffrey T. "Merle Haggard." In Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas, ABC-CLIO, 2023. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://popculture2-abc-clio-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/Search/Display/1738608.
2. “Merle Haggard.” Merle Haggard | Songwriters Hall of Fame. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://www.songhall.org/profile/merle_haggard.
3. Coker, Jeffrey W. "Haggard, Merle (1937– )." In St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, 2nd ed., edited by Thomas Riggs, 585-587. Vol. 2. Detroit, MI: St. James Press, 2013. Gale eBooks (accessed February 20, 2023). https://link-gale-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/apps/doc/CX2735801185/GVRL?u=uiuc_uc&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=84c3af57
4. HILBURN, ROBERT. “HAGGARD WILL RIDE THE RAILS FOR FARMERS : Singer’s Chartered Amtrak Train to Leave Bakersfield, Make Appearances in Eight States and End Its Journey at a Country-and-Rock Farm Aid Concert in Illinois.” Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1985. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-09-06-ca-23636-story.html.