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Merle Haggard’s legacy will continue to be felt

By Paul Schaumburg posted 03-31-2018 14:07

  

Real, pure country music is honest, often downright gritty. The same could be said for Merle Haggard, one of a handful of the most talented and prolific singer-songwriters in the history of country music, or any popular music for that matter! When he died on his 79th birthday April 6, 2016, there was no doubt that his contributions to the music of the common man are as significant as those of the greatest of his personal heroes and friends, ranging from Jimmie Rodgers, Lefty Frizzell, and Bob Wills to Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and George Jones.

He was an enigmatic man who personified contradictions. As Leona Williams, one of his five wives, said, he had a natural look of sadness about him. While that certainly was reflected in many of the songs he wrote and sang, he also was capable of creating very humorous ditties and he could garner both applause and laughter from his spot-on impersonations in concert of other legendary country singers.

His love and respect for other country music greats was crystal clear, not only in his performance of their songs and the tribute albums he recorded, but also in his adherence to a genuinely country sound. “Recording artist” has become a common industry term for decades, but few really lived up to that accolade like Haggard. He truly was an artist, trying different techniques, while crafting his own unique style.

He said it was because he didn’t know any better and the fact that he was recording then in California instead of Nashville that he created his signature style of having a backup singer adding harmony for only part of certain lines, leaving him to finish them out. That description sounds as unique as the reality of it. But, just listen to his recordings, especially something like “Tonight, the Bottle Let Me Down,” and see if that little technique doesn’t sound perfect, adding to the very aura of the message and sounding uniquely Merle Haggard, all at the same time!

While his music frequently retained the honky tonk beat of the Bakersfield Sound he helped create with Buck Owens and others, he also often used a saxophone in his band, side by side with the fiddle and steel guitar. Maybe he got the idea from Jimmie Rodgers’ recordings with jazz icon Louis Armstrong and his trumpet. … Or maybe Haggard just liked the sound of the saxophone! … Whatever the case, Merle made all his songs sound country, with horns or without.

The straightforward economy of his lyrics is reminiscent of Hank Williams, and just as powerful. Consider Hank’s classic song, “I Can’t Help It if I’m Still in Love with You.” Who even could dream of equaling that notion and emotion? Yet, Merle did that very thing with “Today I Started Loving You Again.” Along with the best lyrics of Hank, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, Haggard’s work sounds too good to have been crafted, but seems to have been placed directly in his heart by God Himself.

Haggard documented his misspent youth in his biographical song “Mama Tried.” His father died young while raising a large family and working hard and despite Merle’s mother’s better efforts, he got in with the wrong crowd and really did turn 21 in prison, for an act of sheer stupidity – breaking into a bar drunk, while the bar was still open for business that night! His two years and nine months in prison at San Quentin constituted a long-enough stay to inspire him to write “Sing Me Back Home,” “Branded Man,” and other prison songs. As he told a TV documentary producer, it also served as a prototype, making his natural state of comfort a sleeping berth on his tour bus 6 feet by 8 feet, just like his prison cell. That wasted youth turned around completely when he saw Johnny Cash perform for inmates and vowed to become a country music star himself. 

Now, after a half-century career and nearly eight decades of life, he’s gone – a fate that awaits us all. Still, he leaves us with not only memories, but also an example of how a man can change his own life with God’s help and, most importantly, music that is straightforward, real, relatable, even beautiful… music that speaks to the human condition, warts and all. Each of us can find in his songs times when we believe he is talking to and about us as individuals. God gave Merle Haggard gifts and Merle Haggard used them to enrich, enlighten, and reaffirm our view of our own lives and of the world in which we live. Thank God for Merle Haggard!

 

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