Merle Haggard
Bakersfield country king By Jim AllenEx-con becomes country icon.
Long before Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings spearheaded the Outlaw Country movement in the early 1970s, Merle Haggard offered an alternative to the Nashville assembly line with his “Bakersfield sound.” Along with Buck Owens, Wynn Stewart, and Tommy Collins, Hag pioneered the tough, unfussy, electric honky-tonk style that became synonymous with his blue-collar California hometown. Haggard had a misspent youth (detailed in songs like “Mama Tried”) that ultimately led to a late-‘50s prison stretch in San Quentin. Seeing Johnny Cash perform there inspired Haggard to pursue a singing career, and by the early ‘60s, he and his band The Strangers were turning out a new kind of country. From 1966 to 1978, Haggard landed an astonishing 43 singles in the country Top 40 in a row, earning respect from all corners for his rough-edged sound. Ever the maverick, he often tackled serious sociopolitical topics in his songs, though the tongue-in-cheek “Okie From Muskogee” was misinterpreted and embraced as an unironic redneck anthem. By the ‘90s, his profile had dipped amidst a string of uninspired releases, but a back-to-basics 2000 album for eclectic alt-rock label Anti- Records began an inspired comeback.
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