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	<title>Merle Haggard Official Website</title>
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	<link>http://merlehaggard.com</link>
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		<title>Order Working In Tennessee</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/10/pre-order-working-tennessee/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/10/pre-order-working-tennessee/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=788</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<h3>WORKING IN TENNESSEE IS AVAILABLE</h3>

Iconic country music legend, Country Hall of Famer and most recently a Kennedy Center Honoree, MERLE HAGGARD, is releasing a new album, Working In Tennessee, on October 4th.This marks his second disc for Vanguard Records and is a collection of self-penned Haggard riches, plus a couple of classics made famous by Johnny Cash, as well as a new version of Merle’s stalwart “Working Man Blues” featuring Willie Nelson and his son Ben Haggard.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>47</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson in Los Angeles</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/10/merle-haggard-and-kris-kristofferson-in-los-angeles/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/10/merle-haggard-and-kris-kristofferson-in-los-angeles/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:38:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=833</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Story by Richard Tafoya - SoundSpike Contributing Editor - On a night where cool autumn temperatures might have made hot chocolate a popular concession offering, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson provided the sonic equivalent of a warm blanket to a crowd of true believers Friday (10/7) at Los Angeles' Greek Theater.

While both artists' names appeared on the marquee, this was clearly Haggard's show and Haggard's crowd. Kristofferson fronted nine songs of the 24-song set, commanding many of the more contemplative moments of the night with his richly detailed, classic story-songs, but for the most part, all eyes were on Haggard to see which way the ship would steer next.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>BBC Review</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/10/bbc-review/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/10/bbc-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:45:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=824</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An album full of relaxed mastery, as well as grit and charm, from the country veteran. By Ninian Dunnett 2011-10-06 If you think a guy might sound a little jaded coming to his 49th studio album, Merle Haggard should set you straight. Working in Tennessee is a sheer tonic: a warm brew of the charm that has distinguished one of country’s great heroes for half a century.Haggard is famous for his hits – 38 number ones between 1966 and 1987 – but also because of what he stands for. There probably isn’t anyone in music who is more completely the real deal. And if there’s a quaver in that 74-year-old baritone, it doesn’t dim its ringing authenticity. This is a man who sings Okie from Muskogee with rare conviction: the son of Oklahoman immigrants to the Bakersfield oilfields, and somebody who lived in a box car, served time in San Quentin, dug ditches and drove trucks. When he sounds like Bob Wills, it’s not a coincidence: the great innovator of western swing left Haggard his fiddle when he died. And when he falls naturally into the rocky honky-tonk of the Bakersfield brand of country, it’s because – along with Buck Owens – Hag invented that whole fiery answer to the slick ‘countrypolitan’ of Nashville. Not that there’s much nostalgic about this album. It’s packed with ornery opinions, opening with a sprightly title-track that manages to evoke the spirit of Wills while taking a series of cheerful swipes at Music Row (&#8220;Water came in, water came out / Saw the Hall of Fame, floating about&#8221;). What I Hate and Too Much Boogie Woogie tell it like it is, while there’s a wistful note on Sometimes I Dream and Under the Bridge. But the mood is what’s irresistible. Sashaying through a bunch of tunes that showcase his craft, Haggard sounds laidback and happy. And the bounce spreads right through the band, with lovely fiddle and guitar work from Scott Joss and Reggie Young. There’s even a nod to the future on the singer’s famous Workin’ Man’s Blues, pairing Willie Nelson with Haggard’s 18-year-old son Ben for a cross-generational triumph on an album that is full of relaxed mastery.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Let  Me  Testify</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/09/let-me-testify/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/09/let-me-testify/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:14:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Merle Haggard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hag Editorial]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=801</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So there is NO misunderstanding, let me testify, the power of the healing our Heavenly Father has bestowed upon me. In ’08 I was diagnosed with lung cancer. Most everyone knows that’s a death sentence! Not in my case! More recently I was diagnosed with a heart problem in two hospitals, in Ft. Worth and in Bakersfield. Either they both malfunctioned exactly the same way, or once again, the Lord stepped in and altered the condition. An angiogram proved it all wrong. My heart is perfect! It’s almost embarrassing to know that the Lord cares that much for me. But, I am gonna shout it to the entire world. He healed me either at my request or someone else’s There were a lot of prayers involved He also guided the hands of other special doctors and was able to properly relocate my Atlas. But never for a moment do I give credit or claim any myself. The Man upstairs is still in charge. I am gonna be 75 this coming April and I am a walking miracle I might add a Healthy miracle. I give all the thanks to my Heavenly Father and to my wonderful family, Theresa, Jenessa and Bennie.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>156</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Merle Haggard Reflects On Old Age and God on Leno</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/02/merle-haggard-reflects-on-old-age-and-god-on-leno/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/02/merle-haggard-reflects-on-old-age-and-god-on-leno/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:59:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=755</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[POSTED by Rolling Stone: February 9, 5:40 PM ET &#124; By Andy Greene &#124; Rolling Stone Merle Haggard went on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno last night to perform the title track to his forthcoming LP I Am What I Am. The stellar song appears to be a sequel of sorts to his 1968&#8242;s &#8220;I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am&#8221; and 1980&#8242;s &#8220;The Way I Am.&#8221; Merle Haggard: The Essential Playlist This time around he&#8217;s reflecting on the latter stages of his life, as well as his views on religion. &#8220;I believe Jesus is God and a pig is just ham,&#8221; he sings. &#8220;I&#8217;m just a seeker. I&#8217;m just a sinner. I am what I am.&#8221; 100 Greatest Singers of All Time: Merle Haggard It&#8217;s been a big couple of years for Haggard. He recently made a complete recovery from lung cancer, and late last year was honored at the Kennedy Center. He&#8217;s also hoping to record a new LP with his longtime friends Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. &#8220;I&#8217;m sure if we&#8217;re healthy and live to do it, we&#8217;ll do it,&#8221; he told Rolling Stone.  &#8220;We thought about the title: the Musketeers. You know, because there&#8217;s the three of us. We&#8217;ll come up with some little way of describing ourselves I guess and put it together into a show.&#8221;]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>41</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Merle Continues to Rack up the Awards</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/01/merle-continues-to-rack-up-the-awards/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2011/01/merle-continues-to-rack-up-the-awards/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Jan 2011 07:31:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/_merle2011/?p=681</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Merle continues to rack up the awards and accolades more than 45 years after his first album was released. He was inducted earlier this month into California&#8217;s Hall of Fame, in a class that included Barbra Streisand, Betty White and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He was also honored in December as part of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors, at a special ceremony with President Obama, fellow honorees Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney, composer Bill T. Jones and dancer/choreographer Jerry Herman. An all-star cast of performers paid tribute to the honorees, including Miranda Lambert, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Kris Kristofferson, Jamey Johnson Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley and Kid Rock. Julia Roberts, Barbara Walters, John Travolta and Dave Grohl. Merle says he walked away with a few new friends. &#8220;[Oprah] and I had some funny things happen. She leaned over to me one time during the presentation and she said we came the farthest,&#8221; the country legend reveals. &#8220;She sent me some gifts when we got home. There was a six-pack of some of the most expensive champagne I&#8217;ve seen in my life. She&#8217;s quite a lady.&#8221; Merle describes fellow honoree Paul McCartney as not being &#8220;very funny,&#8221; but says the ceremony made him a new fan of the Commander in Chief. &#8220;He was really nice to us and he was nice to everybody else. It wasn&#8217;t just a brush-by &#8212; he made a special effort to get to know us,  the singer says of President Obama. &#8220;I was highly impressed with him. I&#8217;m not one to go for the charisma, [but] I realize that&#8217;s a talent and it&#8217;s really not something that may or may not make his presidency better. He has that charisma. I think that&#8217;s necessary and I think that when you represent America around the world, you need it. Ronald Reagan had it, and Bill Clinton had it.&#8221; The Kennedy Center Honors will aired December 28 2010 on CBS at 9:00 ET.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>17</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Merle Haggard to Receive Kennedy Center Honors</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/09/kennedy-center-honors-press-release/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/09/kennedy-center-honors-press-release/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:52:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=562</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[MERLE HAGGARD, JERRY HERMAN, BILL T. JONES, PAUL MCCARTNEY AND OPRAH WINFREY TO RECEIVE 33RD ANNUAL KENNEDY CENTER HONORS America to Celebrate the Careers of Five Extraordinary Artists, Sunday, December 5, 2010 Gala will be broadcast on CBS on December 28, 2010 at 9:00-11:00 p.m., ET/PT WASHINGTON, D.C.—The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the selection of the individuals who will receive the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors. Recipients to be honored at the 33rd annual national celebration of the arts are: singer and songwriter Merle Haggard; composer and lyricist Jerry Herman; dancer, choreographer and director Bill T. Jones; songwriter and musician Paul McCartney; and producer, television host and actress Oprah Winfrey. “The Kennedy Center celebrates five individuals who have spent their lives enriching, inspiring and elevating the cultural vibrancy of our nation and the world,” said Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein. “The honesty of Merle Haggard’s music and poetic lyrics has helped to shape the world of country music for nearly five decades. Jerry Herman’s musicals rank him in the pantheon of Broadway’s Golden Age and will keep audiences humming along for generations to come. The inventive style and imaginative artistry of Bill T. Jones has had an invaluable impact on the varied landscapes of dance and theater. Sir Paul McCartney is one of the most influential and successful songwriters and musicians of all time, whose work has continuously altered both the creation and perception of music all over the world. For more than 25 years, Oprah Winfrey has established one of the most innovative careers in the entertainment world, with distinctive accomplishments in television and film.” “The Kennedy Center Honors continues to be an evening like no other and one of the most prestigious telecasts of the television year,” said Leslie Moonves, President &#38; Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. “The intersection of Washington, New York and Hollywood for this event speaks to the importance of the performing arts to all of us. We’re proud of our longstanding partnership with the Kennedy Center and privileged each year to be part of a broadcast that honors those whose talents and achievements influence our arts, entertainment and culture in such a profound way.” The annual Honors Gala has become the highlight of the Washington cultural year, and its broadcast on CBS is a high point of the television season. On Sunday, December 5, in a star-studded celebration on the Kennedy Center Opera House stage, produced by George Stevens Jr. and Michael Stevens, the 2010 Honorees will be saluted by great performers from New York, Hollywood, Nashville, and the arts capitals of the world. Seated with the President of the United States and Mrs. Obama, the Honorees will accept the thanks of their peers and fans through performances and heartfelt tributes. The President and Mrs. Obama will receive the Honorees and members of the Artists Committee who nominate them, along with the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees at the White House prior to the gala performance. The 2010...]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Haggard keeps on movin’</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/07/haggard-keeps-on-movin%e2%80%99/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/07/haggard-keeps-on-movin%e2%80%99/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:02:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=529</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Haggard keeps on movin’ By Nathalie Baret For the Journal Merle Haggard has a few priorities that he won’t back down from. One is staying above ground. “I’m the kind of guy that has to keep moving and keep active, otherwise I’ll die. At my age, that’s real important. And singing is like swimming, because if you don’t do it, you lose it real quick. Plus, it is essential for your lungs. You know if you can go outside in your backyard and yell for an hour and a half you’d feel real good when you got done.” Other “musts” that take precedence for the 73-year old country artist are spending quality time with his wife, Theresa, and their 18- and 21-year-old sons, recording three to four album sessions a year in his own studio (the Shade Tree Manor) in northern California and doing as much fishing as possible. “We enjoy it here,” Haggard said, calling from his ranch near Shasta Lake and Redding, Calif. “We have a game refuge of about 180 acres with deer, bobcats, all sorts of wild things, and plenty of fish with a river on one side and a pond on the other.” Haggard, known fondly as “The Hag” to his fans and the music community, released a new album in April, marking his first solo effort in three years, derived from one of his recording sessions in 2009 with his band the Strangers. “What I do is I write and record music in my studio and then I take the songs and try to string up the kind of fish that fits the album so that the collection is compatible,” Haggard said. “So with this new record, I gave it to Vanguard Records when it was finished, they loved it, took it as it was and released it.” With one of the songs written in 1991 and others just last year, “I Am What I Am” shows the honky-tonk outlaw, who is never conventional, often confrontational and always outspoken, is like a fine wine that keeps ripening. WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 13 WHERE: Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort &#38; Casino, 287 Carrizo Canyon Road, Mescalero HOW MUCH: Tickets are $25 to $100 through www. ticketmaster.com or by calling 800-745-3000. For more information, visit www.innofthemountaingods.com Channel 7 News Top Billing segment]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/06/merle-haggard-learning-to-live-with-myself/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/06/merle-haggard-learning-to-live-with-myself/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:17:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=523</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[THIRTEEN’S American Masters pays tribute to a country music patriarch in Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself premiering July 21, 2010 on PBS The film features archival footage and interviews with Merle Haggard and his family, Robert Duvall, John Fogerty, Kris Kristofferson, Keith Richards, Tanya Tucker and more. Explore American music legends at pbs.org/americanmasters. “I’m living proof that things go wrong in America and I’m also living proof that things can go right,” says Merle Haggard.  In Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself, American Masters’ candid documentary about the country music legend, who is often called “the poet of the common man,” tells it like it is.  The film features interviews with comrades and fellow musicians including Robert Duvall, John Fogerty, Billy Gibbons, Kris Kristofferson, Keith Richards, Tanya Tucker, Don Was, and Dwight Yoakam, among others.  The hardscrabble people with whom he was raised – his juvenile delinquency and incarcerations – still inform his creativity and perspective.  Hailed as “country music’s Frank Sinatra” in a recent review of his latest release I AM WHAT I AM (Vanguard Records),  American Masters celebrates this “Lonesome Fugitive” in Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself premiering Wednesday, July 21 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings.) Currently in its 24th season, American Masters is a production of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG – one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. “When listening to his songs, it has been said that you recognize the truth in the stories he tells,” says Susan Lacy, series creator and executive producer of American Masters, a seven-time winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Primetime Non-Fiction Series.  “Haggard is an artist who’s still on top of his game and through the ups and downs; he’s remained true to himself and to his music.” Haggard actually lived the rambling, gambling, love ‘em and leave ‘em, often brutal life that remains the bedrock of country music lyrics – he hopped his first freight train at the age of 10, became a chronic truant and drinker and was locked up some 17 times as a youngster.  Serious criminal charges followed, including car theft.  He was, literally, in the inmate audience in 1959, when Johnny Cash gave his New Year’s Day concert in San Quentin – and, as he’s said repeatedly, “my life changed forever.” For Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself,  filmmaker Gandulf Hennig followed Haggard with his camera for the past three years – at home on the ranch and on his concert tours.  A kind of wandering troubadour, who’s led his band The Strangers since 1965, Haggard is known as a singer’s singer and a guitar player’s guitar player – his voice, his finger picking and his interpretations are like none others. “For me as a documentary filmmaker, it has been a dream come true and at times a challenge,” says Hennig.  “Merle is very guarded, at the same time, very honest.  As an artist, he is as original and as spontaneous as it gets. Working...]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>He Is What He Is: The Merle Haggard Interview</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/05/he-is-what-he-is-the-merle-haggard-interview/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/05/he-is-what-he-is-the-merle-haggard-interview/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 May 2010 23:13:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=510</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Rachel Brodsky &#8211; May 11 2010 at PopMatters He Is What He Is: The Merle Haggard Interview Today he’s considered a country legend, but that doesn’t mean Merle Haggard’s life has been easy. Dubbed “the poet of the common man”, Haggard’s early years were a rough n’ tumble combination of odd jobs and small crimes, which eventually led to prison stays and frequent visits to juvenile detention centers. Born in 1937 to a staunchly religious mother, Haggard experienced early trauma when his father passed away, causing him to act out as a teenager, robbing stores and frequently running away from the high-security boarding schools where he’d been sent. Although Haggard experienced a number of run-ins with the law, he still perused a musical education, which meant modeling a style from musicians of the day (Bob Wills, Hank Williams) and learning any instrument he could get his hands on. In fact, Haggard even witnessed Johnny Cash’s historic performance in San Quentin Prison, never mind the fact that he stood among the audience at the time. But once the 1960s rolled around, Merle Haggard was on the way to becoming a bona-fide country superstar. After exiting prison, Haggard performed manual labor by day and sang in local clubs by night, eventually leading to dozens of #1 hits that commented on his tough childhood and protested certain long-haired liberal types (Haggard was a well-known supporter of the Vietnam War). Today, songs like “Okie from Muskogee” and “Mama Tried” are considered country classics while Haggard has gone on to release over 30 studio albums, each with varying mixtures of jazz, blues and folk. Fresh off of releasing I Am What I Am, his first studio output since 2007, Haggard sounds more at ease with himself than ever. PopMatters sat down with Haggard to talk about the state of country music today, his friendship with Johnny Cash and why he hasn’t liked a president since Ronald Reagan. So I just listened to your new album, I Am What I Am. The title to me would indicate a new age of self-acceptance on your end. Would you say that’s accurate? Well, you know, the album stands for itself. It is what it is. I am what I am. And I do what I do. Here it is. The response to (the album) has really been tremendous. So I’m really glad to hear you like it also. I’m mostly intrigued by the last track. The lyrics describe a man who has finally grown comfortable in his body and is accepting of the mistakes he’s made. Yeah, I might be a little bit more comfortable. I might have given in to the fact that you know; I have to be what I’ll be. I can’t really change it. I’m relaxed with myself. I’m comfortable with my own being. And did your wife Theresa contribute? Yeah, she works on stage with me. We’ve been together 24 years. And that’s twice as long as I’ve ever been with any...]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Merle Haggard: As He Is</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/05/merle-haggard-as-he-is/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/05/merle-haggard-as-he-is/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 May 2010 19:15:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=504</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Peter Cooper on April 30th, 2010 American Songwriter Merle Haggard: As He Is “Songwriting gets harder and harder, unless you just want to try to write a better version of what you’ve already done,” said Merle Haggard, 73, sitting in a Middle Tennessee studio and making clear that he wants much more than that. Kris Kristofferson, whose own songs transformed the language of country music, calls Haggard “The greatest artist in American music history.” At the very least, Haggard is among the most skilled writers ever to set pen to paper and pick to string, and he has applied working man’s hours to an artist’s mindset. The April release of Vanguard Records’ I Am What I Am brought his career total to 76 albums in his 73 years, and almost all of those works have featured original material. He recorded 30 albums in the first nine years of his career, before he was 38 years-old. “I’ve seen it all, and I’ve seen it go away,” he sings on the new album detailing the cultural, political and artistic triumphs and failings he’s witnessed in his time. Haggard, though, hasn’t gone away. “I keep hoping to find a way to write a song that will move up to number one in my gathering of material, one that’s better than anything I’ve ever written,” he said. “That’s what keeps me alive: That hope that I’ll write the song that’ll knock me out and that will be better than ‘Workin’ Man Blues,’ and better than ‘Mama Tried.’ That’s my reason for believing. You know, a lot of times I thought it was all over.” Over the past couple of years, there were others who thought it might be over. Haggard’s songs remained stout and incisive, but in November of 2008, he underwent surgery to remove cancer on his lung. It was a scary deal for Haggard, his family and his fans, but within two months he was back performing, and within a year he was, he estimates “95 percent recovered.” His recovery time was not down time, as he remained committed to bringing his music out on the road and to writing the songs that are heard on I Am What I Am. This year, he played six shows with Kristofferson, winning raves (The Chicago Sun-Times’ Dave Hoekstra called that pair “The Rembrandt and Picasso” of country music, with Hag taking the Rembrandt tag because of the human portraits he offers in song. And he’ll spent much of this spring and summer traveling, playing concerts with his band, The Strangers, a combo that has been given a youthful shot in the arm from Haggard’s 17-year-old son, Ben Haggard, who has been contributing lead guitar of late. The Strangers provide most of the backing for the new album, with young Ben sharing guitar duties with Tim Howard. Co-produced by the elder Haggard and longtime collaborator Lou Bradley and recorded at Haggard’s Shade Tree Manor studio in Northern California, I Am What I Am fits...]]></description>
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		<title>Somic Boomer &#8211; Album of the Week</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/04/somic-boomer-album-of-the-week/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/04/somic-boomer-album-of-the-week/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:28:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=496</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Album of the Week &#8211; Merle Haggard &#8211; I Am What I Am &#8211; Vanguard Records Article by Don McLeese &#8211; Sonic Boomers There are at least two ways you can take the title of the latest from a country legend whose career spans more than a half-century.  You can hear it as a prideful declaration, a Popeye-style “I Yam What I Yam” or Sinatra-esque “My Way,” a chip that has been on the Hag’s shoulder since the days of “I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am” (not to mention “The Fighting Side of Me”). But you can also hear it as an expression of profound humility, from an artist who long ago left behind any pretense and posturing, who acknowledges his failings and limitations but who has found comfort in his own skin. This is what I am, the title says. For better or worse. It’s an admission without apology, a lesson in perspective from what life, and especially love, has taught him. Title aside, what’s truly special about the latest album from Merle Haggard is that there’s nothing truly special about it&#8211;no broadsides on the political state of the world, no startling changes of direction, no concept that fits on a bumper sticker. Instead, this is simply Merle Haggard, relaxed and intimate, up close and personal, doing what he does best. And what no one does better. At the age of 73, the creatively vital artist has nothing to prove and nothing to hide.  Yet there is no sense here that his debut for yet another new label finds him going through the motions. Most of the songs are superior, the phrasing impeccable, the band an inspired blend of Haggard’s Strangers with guest musicians including Dobro virtuoso Rob Ikes and drummer George Recili (from the band of Bob Dylan, Haggard’s occasional tour mate, and sounding particularly jazzy with the light percussion touches here). Co-producing in his own studio with the veteran Lou Bradley, Haggard lets a few rough edges and conversational asides reinforce the intimacy and immediacy of the music, directing wife Theresa though their duet on the dancefloor-filling “Live and Love Always,” encouraging musicians such as Ikes and pianist Doug Colosio in their spotlight turns, providing the occasional off-the-wall remark (“Do you think Louis Armstrong played the blues when he stepped out on the moon. Ha-HAH!”). If the artist has no one to please other than himself, he still has standards to maintain, which he does through the strength of his songwriting. Even when Haggard was at his commercial peak, at a time when country albums of the ‘60s and ‘70s typically offered a couple of hits and a whole lot of filler, his releases were distinguished by gems that never made it to the charts. “I’ve never been much at making believe, don’t have any tricks hidden  up my sleeve,” sings Haggard in one of those classic country waltzes that might have highlighted any of those albums, though lacking the production sheen that...]]></description>
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		<title>On the bus with Merle Haggard</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/04/on-the-bus-with-merle-haggard/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/04/on-the-bus-with-merle-haggard/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:22:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=490</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Stagecoach 2010: On the bus with Merle Haggard Los Angeles Times &#8211; April 24, 2010 &#8211; by Randy Lewis Parking is a journey to the dark side for all concerned this weekend. Several acres were set aside for free parking for those coming to Stagecoach just for the day, and the three-lane-wide jam of cars and, mostly, pickup trucks jockeying to get in earlier Saturday was breathtaking. Even a musician of Merle Haggard’s stature got caught in the fracas, his bus pulling in about an hour behind schedule to the area in back of the Palomino Stage, where he would play later in the evening. But the esteemed singer and songwriter was relaxed when I caught up with him on the bus, as Tiger Army lead singer Nick 13 launched his new roots-country side project just a few feet away. (Nick 13 paid earnest homage to Haggard and 84-year-old Ray Price, both of whom would be following him shortly on the same stage.) Haggard’s new album “I Am What I Am” came out earlier this week, and he spoke about the intimate tone of many of the homespun songs. There’s no flash, little outward fire in the gentle collection. “It’s pretty personal,” Haggard, 73, said softly, sitting at a small table at the back of his bus, while other members of his entourage hung out in the front &#8212; joined by Bobby Bare, who climbed aboard after finishing his own set a few minutes before. “There’s not a lot of politics,” said Haggard, dressed in a comfortable-looking old New York Athletics jersey. “I guess it’s a little more from the heart than the last few albums.” There’s a sweetly reflective remembrance about growing up in Bakersfield, “Oil Tanker Train”; a song about his home in Northern California, “Down at the End of the Road”; and a bittersweet observation that love is “Pretty When It’s New.” The one exception to the general tone of songs of the heart and hearth is “I’ve Seen It Go Away,” the new album’s lead-off track. Without throwing barbs, he gently but sadly notes many of the things he’s observed of the best of what defines America to its citizens and the rest of the world, how over time “I’ve seen it go away.” Is the man famously “proud to be an Okie from Muskogee” getting disillusioned with the land he’s loved for so long? “Some people might say that,” he said. “Maybe I am,” he added with a little chuckle. “But I think there are some people who are going to agree with it too. I think more people have started to turn our direction in the last couple of months, so I think it sounds right up to date.” Haggard said the lung cancer for which he underwent surgery in 2008 has stayed in remission and he’s feeling strong enough to pump up his touring schedule again. “We have a couple of children who are out of the house now, and we have some extra time.” For himself, Haggard was...]]></description>
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		<title>MERLE HAGGARD RELEASES ‘I AM WHAT I AM’ TOMORROW</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/04/merle-haggard-releases-%e2%80%98i-am-what-i-am%e2%80%99-tomorrow/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:26:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=485</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[MERLE HAGGARD RELEASES ‘I AM WHAT I AM’ TOMORROW, APRIL 20 ON VANGUARD RECORDS; PERFORMACE FROM STAGECOACH FESTIVAL TO BE BROADCAST LIVE ON APRIL 24 FROM 10-11PM EASTERN ON SIRUIS/XM RADIO’S OUTLAW COUNTRY CHANNEL MERLE HAGGARD’s newest disc—I AM WHAT I AM—may not come out until tomorrow, April 20, nevertheless it’s already receiving rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic earning 4-stars in Rolling Stone and the UK’s Uncut. Elsewhere on NPR, “Morning Edition” will be airing an interview this week, while “Fresh Air” is reviewing the album. Meanwhile, at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival this weekend in Indio, CA, Merle Haggard’s live set will be broadcast exclusively by Sirius XM Radio on the Outlaw Country channel (Sirius 63/XM 12), Saturday, April 24 from 10-11pm Eastern hosted by Mojo Nixon. Up next for Merle? More live dates and an upcoming segment next month on the venerated news magazine CBS Sunday Morning.]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard: I Am What I Am</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/04/merle-haggard-i-am-what-i-am/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/04/merle-haggard-i-am-what-i-am/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:24:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=482</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Article By Ludovic Hunter-Tilney I Am What I Am Vanguard 4 Satrs When Johnny Cash played at San Quentin prison, Merle Haggard was in the audience. After doing time, the jailbird went straight and became a country singer himself. “Hag, you’re the guy people think I am,” Cash told him years later. Haggard, 73, is on fine form on I Am What I Am, growling cowboy verses about his “chequered past” and looking for a place “to hang my hat” (“I found it in a cabin on a hill/Down at the end of the road”) as his immaculate backing band The Strangers crank out old-fashioned country. No Nine Inch Nails covers here: instead Haggard drifts back in time to hillbilly jazz, piano parlour ballads and 1940s western swing; similar ground as that staked out recently by one-time touring partner Bob Dylan. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/81186006-476e-11df-b253-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson were already past their hellion years&#8230;.</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/04/merle-haggard-and-willie-nelson-were-already-past-their-hellion-years/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/04/merle-haggard-and-willie-nelson-were-already-past-their-hellion-years/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:22:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=476</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[New York Times Article By JON CARAMANICA, NATE CHINEN and BEN RATLIFF &#8211; Published: April 18, 2010 MERLE HAGGARD “I Am What I Am” &#8211; (Vanguard) WILLIE NELSON “Country Music” (Rounder) Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson were already past their hellion years when they united for the 1983 album “Pancho &#38; Lefty.” Relaxed and knowing, it was the product of a couple of onetime outlaw rule breakers who had learned that playing nice was potentially a more lucrative choice and almost certainly a less stressful one. In retrospect the album was a harbinger of compromises yet to come: in the decades since, both singers — once capable of being caustic and moody — became polite shells of their old selves. Often the music they made, particularly Mr. Nelson’s, felt feeble, embodying slow decline. New albums from Mr. Haggard and Mr. Nelson, in the spotty twilight of their careers, are carefully calibrated responses to years of style dilution. Both are debut releases on medium-size labels, and both seek to boost the artists’ bona fides by reconnecting them to the sort of classic country they might have been raised on. Of the two, Mr. Nelson’s project, titled “Country Music” and produced by T Bone Burnett, is the more successful; it’s an often robust album that flaunts Mr. Nelson’s versatility. There are songs about mortality and dark spirituals (“Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down”), but also plenty of mischievous moments (“Drinking Champagne”) and a song about a train. Plenty of recent albums by Mr. Nelson have felt distant and phoned-in. Here, though, his voice uncharacteristically has barely a hint of lethargy. As a result the soft country waltzes — delivered by a crack band that includes Buddy Miller on guitar, Russell Pahl on pedal steel and Jim Lauderdale singing backup vocals — become richer and more surprising. On “I Am What I Am,” a collection of slight sketches influenced by the Californian country of the 1960s, Mr. Haggard sounds more fatigued than his old sidekick, his voice less willing to bend. There are some lovely moments of stern self-loathing (“Bad Actor,” “How Did You Find Me Here”); Mr. Haggard is always sharper when pointing the finger at himself than when celebrating love, as he often does on this album. On both albums the easy breeze of “Pancho &#38; Lefty” is largely a memory. These are artists testing themselves after years of progressive rust accumulation. Neither of these albums is as strained as much of the material these singers have released in the past decade. In part that’s because neither album shies away from maturity, with each singer tackling songs for which age is an asset, not a liability. For Mr. Nelson that’s “Satisfied Mind,” an argument against frivolity: “Money can’t buy your youth when you’re old/or a friend when you’re lonely/or a love that’s grown cold.” For Mr. Haggard there’s “We’re Falling In Love Again,” which isn’t about the durability of love, but rather the small thrills of rediscovery: “We’re having good times...]]></description>
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		<title>I AM WHAT I AM &#8211; New CD Coming April 20</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/03/459/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/03/459/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:51:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=459</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[MERLE HAGGARD RETURNS APRIL 20 WITH NEW CD ‘I AM WHAT I AM’ DEBUT DISC FOR VANGUARD RECORDS MERLE HAGGARD returns on April 20 with his new CD I AM WHAT I AM, his first disc for Vanguard Records, and an inspired effort from a rejuvenated legend. Co-produced by MERLE with longtime cohort Lou Bradley, the disc features 12 songs including the candid title track, with typically stellar playing from MERLE’s band the Strangers. MERLE turns inward on his new disc, and the result isn’t some great claim to Truth, but a concession to the album title’s simple truth. If the songs here are occasionally tinged with regret, I AM WHAT I AM is no place for apologies – indeed, the tone of these tracks is celebratory as often as not, the reflection of a man profoundly comfortable in his weathered skin. Don Markham’s understated trumpet lends both vibrancy to pensive tracks and restraint to rowdier cuts, and Doug Colosio’s piano offers a reference point to MERLE’s Western swing roots (notably on “Pretty When It’s New” and “The Road To My Heart”). I AM WHAT I AM is anchored by MERLE’s band The Strangers – which, in addition to Markham and Colosio, includes drummer Biff Adam, Norm Hamlet on steel guitar, Scott Joss on fiddle and guitar, and Kevin Williams on bass with lead guitars from Tim Howard and MERLE’s son Ben Haggard – while a short list of guest musicians (including Bob Dylan drummer George Receli) sound right at home with the band in the comfortable confines of MERLE’s Shade Tree Manor studio in Northern California. It’s a prime canvas for the artist’s work, and MERLE doesn’t disappoint. Every song is imbued with the near alchemical power of his dazzling vocal performances, and MERLE’s interpretive mastery and unmatched phrasing continues to bring on impressive measures of sensitivity, candor and authority. I AM WHAT I AM is a typically far-reaching set, but remains centered around a series of contemplations on love, in all of its intoxicating and vexing forms. Examining romance with a poet’s beatific vulnerability, MERLE travels from the ardent bloom of romance to the intricate ensemble of family life to the burnt out confusion of fading passion, yet always returns to love’s eternally redemptive power. On tracks like “Pretty When It’s New,” a study of new love’s marvelous voltage, and “How Did You Find Me Here” which convincingly takes him from morbid depression to elated joy, MERLE sounds almost reborn, intensely involved and consumed with a sheer sense of wonder that’s enhanced further by those characteristically masterful vocals. Elsewhere, MERLE lets loose on a duet with his wife Theresa on the rollicking “Live And Love Always,” revisits his childhood on “Oil Tanker Train,” and finds the contentment of home sweet home on “Down At The End Of The Road.” MERLE&#8217;s often closely guarded innocence is completely exposed, showing a tenderness that, considering the counterpoint of his battle-scarred, hardened exterior, creates a remarkably resonant experience. The track listing for...]]></description>
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		<title>Haggard, Kristofferson give masterpiece at Rosemont</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/02/haggard-kristofferson-give-masterpiece-at-rosemont/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/02/haggard-kristofferson-give-masterpiece-at-rosemont/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:56:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=451</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By DAVE HOEKSTRA Staff Reporter &#8211; Chicago Sun Times On the canvas of country music, there are no more prolific living songwriters than Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson. The Country Music Hall of Famers concluded a six-city tour Sunday night at the Rosemont Theatre before a less-than-capacity audience. What’s wrong with Chicago music fans? Pop star Justin Timberlake recognized the importance of this concert. He was backstage before the show taking photographs, apparently for an art project, according to Haggard management. He had to leave before the concert to catch a flight to Europe. Timberlake is from Millville, Tenn, where Haggard recorded his 1981 gospel album “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” And that album features a stark cover of Kristofferson’s ballad “Why Me,” which the duo lifted up like a rugged cross at the Rosemont. These men are the Rembrandt (Haggard’s human portraits) and Picasso (Kristofferson’s post-impressionism) of country music. So it snowed Sunday night. I would have walked to this show. The concert was billed as an acoustic evening, but Hag and Kris are where they are because of their impulsive nature. They were backed by a stripped-down electric version of Haggard’s band the Strangers, featuring longtime drummer Biff Adam only on a snare and brushes and Haggard’s 17-year-old son Ben on lead guitar (Hag is 72). For an hour and 45 minutes, Haggard and Kristofferson traded off on subdued versions of each other’s best-known songs, with a couple of new ones thrown in for size. Haggard’s tone and phrasing were spot-on in the acoustically pristine theater. Acoustics can’t help Kristofferson’s sandpaper-on-metal vocals, and he seemed to be fighting a cold. Still he delivered effortless versions of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” (a hit for Johnny Cash) and “From Here To Forever,” a new lullaby (co-written with the late Stephen Bruton) to his child that is tailor-made for country radio. Both men were dressed in black, likely as homage to Cash, and there may have been no more chilling moment than the final song of the evening: “Anthem ’84,” a 1990 Highwaymen track composed by Kristofferson and sung by Cash. Haggard and Kristofferson dueted on the metaphoric ballad: “If you’re lookin’ for a fighter who’ll defend you, and love you for your freedom, I’m your man. I ain’t gonna leave you for the crazy things you’re doin’. But don’t ask me to lend a helpin’ hand. . . .” I remember when Chicagoans didn’t go to Cash/Highwaymen concerts either, until Cash linked up with hipster Rick Rubin. Although they can be at opposite ends of the political spectrum, Kristofferson stood in Haggard’s corner all night, strumming acoustic guitar, smiling and singing along. After walking on stage to deliver a solo acoustic version of his “Shipwrecked in the Eighties” (which he dedicated to the late Austin, Texas, singer-songwriter Bruton), Kristofferson introduced Haggard as “the greatest artist in American music history.” He’s not far off the mark. Haggard swung through “Workin’ Man Blues,” gospel, a pop version of “I Take...]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard brings big hits and talented teenage son to Gallo Center</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/01/merle-and-benion-big-hit-at-gallocenter/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2010/01/merle-and-benion-big-hit-at-gallocenter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:25:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=440</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Story By Lisa Millegan Modesto Bee Merle Haggard isn&#8217;t the only one in his family to have musical talent. When the 72-year-old country music legend returns to the Gallo Center for the Arts on Sunday, his youngest son will perform with his band the Strangers. Haggard said 17-year-old Benion is a genius on the guitar. &#8220;You can&#8217;t play lead guitar with Merle Haggard unless you&#8217;re pretty good,&#8221; Haggard said in a phone interview from his home near Lake Shasta. &#8220;He&#8217;s doing it. It&#8217;s not because he&#8217;s my son, it&#8217;s because he&#8217;s good.&#8221; Haggard last performed at the Gallo Center in March 2008. As usual, he&#8217;ll play a mix of his 1960s and &#8217;70s hits like the anti-hippie ode &#8220;Okie From Muskogee,&#8221; the patriotic &#8220;The Fightin&#8217; Side of Me&#8221; and &#8220;Mama Tried,&#8221; along with newer works. &#8220;We do a completely ad-libbed show,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We get on the stage with all the hits we&#8217;ve had, new songs and different style. We have swing tunes, country tunes, pop tunes and the whole variety of music we bring to the stage. We do it from the cuff, we don&#8217;t plan it. Sometimes, it comes out really good.&#8221; Haggard has racked up 40 No. 1 chart hits, 19 Academy of Country Music awards, seven Country Music Association wins (plus 43 nominations, the most of any artist) and two Grammys. He is also a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Born in Bakersfield, he had a rough early life, going in and out of juvenile detention centers and frequently running away (sometimes to Modesto). In the late 1950s, he was sentenced to prison for attempting to rob a restaurant, and ultimately ended up at San Quentin. After he was released in 1960, he performed in Bakersfield clubs and broke into country music big time. These days, he&#8217;s working on a new album for Vanguard Records that will come out in May. It won&#8217;t be filled with the pointed political messages Haggard is known for, however. &#8220;We steered away from the politics and went back to writing about our own life,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We find our own life is more like other people&#8217;s than most people in Washington.&#8221; He said the songs reflect his feelings about parenthood and growing older. One song is called &#8220;Down at the End of the Road&#8221; and is about building a family and seeing children get older and leave. But Haggard is not averse to sharing his views about President Barack Obama when asked. &#8220;I don&#8217;t care for the majority of the people he&#8217;s picked,&#8221; the singer said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t see a lot of intelligence around him. I&#8217;m worried about him. His numbers have gone down. He hasn&#8217;t produced anything he promised yet.&#8221; Overall, Haggard said he&#8217;s feeling good. He and his wife, Theresa, just celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary with a private party. His health is fine. In November 2008, he had surgery to remove part of his lung because of cancer. But he said he feels good...]]></description>
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		<title>HAGGARD SINGS WOODY GUTHRIE’S “JESUS CHRIST”</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/10/haggard-sings-woody-guthrie%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9cjesus-christ%e2%80%9d/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/10/haggard-sings-woody-guthrie%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9cjesus-christ%e2%80%9d/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[From Merle & Theresa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=431</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[MUSIC LEGEND MERLE HAGGARD SINGS WOODY GUTHRIE’S “JESUS CHRIST” OVER CLOSING CREDITS OF MICHAEL MOORE’S ‘CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY’ When Michael Moore’s new documentary Capitalism: A Love Story opens nationwide this Friday (October 2), it will be country music legend MERLE HAGGARD that audiences hear closing out the film. MERLE said, “I was proud to sing Woody Guthrie’s ‘Jesus Christ,’” over Capitalism’s end credits. As author and singer of “Workin’ Man Blues” – and oft-dubbed “The Poet of the Common Man” – it’s only fitting that MERLE would play a part in Moore’s paean to the plight of regular Americans in an economy ruled by big business. Equally fitting is that MERLE, tagged on the cover of Rolling Stone as a “Badass Legend,” and described in a lengthy profile in the October 1 issue as “a rebel icon and folk hero, an inheritor of the traditions of Woody Guthrie,” would revisit one of Guthrie’s protest songs. A Golden Lion nominee and winner of both the Little Golden Lion and the Open Prize at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, Capitalism: A Love Story opened in New York and Los Angeles on September 23 to box office success and critical praise. Calling it “a genuine and welcome rabble rouser,” Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers says, “Moore&#8217;s fireball of a movie could change your life. It had me laughing with tears in my eyes.” Elsewhere, Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman calls the film “a searing outcry against the excesses of a cutthroat time,” and Claudia Puig of USA Today calls it “impassioned, informative, and entertaining,” adding that “Moore makes his case with humor, humanity, and outrageous scenarios.” Capitalism: A Love Story hits theaters across America on October 2. MERLE appears in the current issue of Rolling Stone in a career-defining piece written by Jason Fine. This in-depth look at an American icon has hit a nerve with the public: not only is everyone from John Fogerty to Dog The Bounty Hunter twittering about MERLE, but the magazine has also received overwhelmingly positive responses via old fashioned handwritten letters, email and web comments. Meanwhile, MERLE was recently honored with the Poet’s Award at the Academy of Country Music’s ACM Honors on September 22 in Nashville – and played a sold-out gig at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium that same night.]]></description>
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		<title>Merle and Theresa Haggard Celebrate 16! &#8211; read more!</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/09/merle-and-theresa-haggard-celebrate-16-read-more/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/09/merle-and-theresa-haggard-celebrate-16-read-more/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:27:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[From Merle & Theresa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=403</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As Merle and Theresa Haggard prepare to hit the road for the September Tours, they will be celebrating their 16th Wedding Anniversary September 11th! &#8211; Cheers to Merle and Theresa &#8230;and to many more!]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/09/merle-and-theresa-haggard-celebrate-16-read-more/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>88</slash:comments>
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		<title>Prayer Request for Jessica</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/09/prayer-request-for-jessica/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/09/prayer-request-for-jessica/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:42:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Theresa</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[From Merle & Theresa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=390</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Dear fans and friends, Merle and I have a friend&#8221; &#8220;&#8230;a very special friend. Her name is Jessica Easley. She is 10 years old. Jessica has terminal bone cancer. She recently had her leg amputated. Her doctors have sent her home because they say there is no more that they can do . They have given her 2 to 3 weeks to live.  SHE NEED ALL OF OUR PRAYERS OF HEALING! &#8220;THAT IF IT BE GOD&#8217;S WILL&#8221; JESSICA CAN BE HEALED COMPLETELY and  go on to  live her life fully and healthy like  she was meant to. So I post this letter in  total faith that together we can ask Jesus to touch Jessica Easley and make her whole again. We ask of this healing in Jesus name.&#8221; Sincerely, Theresa Haggard &#8220;By my stripes you are healed&#8221;Isaiah 53:5 &#8220; Jessica is 10 years old and has alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer. You can read more about Jessica&#8217;s Story by going to her personal website HERE. If you would like to know more about Jessica and CaringBridge please click HERE. &#8220;Jessica took her last breath at 3:50 AM (Oct. 13, 2009), is now pain-free, Heaven-bound, and running with 2 legs!  How we wish we could see her play.&#8221; - Teresa L. Radke Mother of Pediatric Cancer Patient JESSICA EASLEY &#8211; &#8230;read more!]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>221</slash:comments>
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		<title>Merle Haggard Interview at Country Star Central</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/07/merle-haggard-interview-at-country-star-central/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/07/merle-haggard-interview-at-country-star-central/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:02:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=341</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Merle Haggard Interview at Country Star Central This week at CSC music legend Merle Haggard chats with Country Star Central about his remarkable career, childhood memories of his musical background, secret crush on Dolly Parton, what accomplishments mean the most to him and MUCH MORE! Below are is an excerpt of the interview, to see the full interview got to Country Star Central website! (CSC) 1. (What an honor to speak with you!) You’re ready to hit the road once again. What are you most looking forward to about performing with your band &#38; how have you been? (Merle Haggard) Well you know I had a little bout last year with the Cancer thing. I got that out and didn’t have to do any chemo thankfully. I guess I dodged a bullet you might say. I got back on the road with a full crew, full force and I am enjoying it more than ever! (CSC) 2. I understand your wife and your sons are in your band as well, right? (Merle Haggard) My wife Theresa sings the tenor with me and my son plays guitar. I’m pretty fortunate to have that happen for me. (CSC) 3. I think its fitting to say that the “Last of the Breed” tour you took part in with pals Ray Price and Willie Nelson pretty much sums up the current state of country music today. What are your thoughts on the music business? (Merle Haggard) Well it’s like everything else you know, it’s pretty slow right now and it’s strange what there is of it that is left it has been making some real changes over the last few years. (CSC) 4. Growing up in Southern California, what first attracted you to country music, and who were some of the artists at that time that inspired your early musical style? (Merle Haggard) I grew up in Bakersfield, in Oildale, an adjacent city which was quite a bit like Texas in as much as we had oil and we had country music. It was more of a bar room brand and maybe the east of the river type. I was lucky to be in the kind of area that supported that kind of music they had when television first came on the air in 1953. There was quite a bit of music in Bakersfield. I was young and able to take advantage of what was performing there. (CSC) 5. Who were some of the artists that you enjoyed listening to back then? (Merle Haggard) Bob Wills was real big at the time in California, Texas, and Oklahoma; let’s just say the western half of the United States. (Laughs) I was very much influenced by him and his music. Also Lefty Frizzell was a big artist, and Hank Williams were a few of the other ones I enjoyed. Then doing shows at the bars we had to do a lot of rock and roll. We had to perform a lot of Chuck Berry, a lot...]]></description>
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		<title>Loretta Lynn &amp; Merle Haggard at Northern Lights</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/07/loretta-lynn-merle-haggard-at-northern-lights/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/07/loretta-lynn-merle-haggard-at-northern-lights/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:47:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=335</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This past week music legends Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard wowed country music fans during their two night stint in Milwaukee!! Make sure to check out the concert review with pictures to find out what songs were performed. By Donna Stroup Country Stars Central “The Hag Shines at Northern Lights Theater” Legendary music icon Merle Haggard appeared at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino’s Northern Lights Theater for a two night stint on July 14th and 15th 2009. The show began at 9:30pm with an opening set by up and coming duo the Malpass Brothers. The two brothers Chris and Taylor encompass the traditional country music style. Their two song performance delighted the audience as they anxiously awaited Merle. Taking the stage at 9:45pm Merle greeted his audience while the houselights illuminated around him. Wearing a brown suede jacket adorned with fringe complete with purple sunglasses and a black hat, Merle mesmerized the attentive audience with his slick demeanor. Before the concert even began, Merle received a standing ovation from his loyal and loving fans. He was accompanied by a nine piece band which consisted of a sax player, keyboards, drums, steel guitar, fiddle, and electric guitars. Merle kicked off the show with “Workin’ Man Blues,” “Going Where The Lonely Go,” and “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink.” He then addressed the audience by saying, “Thank you very much. It’s great to be here this evening. Did you enjoy Loretta?” The audience replied to his statement with rich applause. The entire show was filled with nonstop humor and clever quips directed towards the audience. For instance, the introduction found Merle asking the audience, “Can you drink here or do you have to slip it in?” The offhanded question created a stir and much laughter. Being a veteran performer, Merle shared all of his well loved classics such as “That’s The Way Love Goes,” “Today I Started Loving You Again,” “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star,” “Okie From Muskogee,” “Big City,” “Mama Tried,” and “Are The Good Times Really Over” while the star struck listeners devoured each moment. One of the many special treats for the audience was the appearance of Merle’s youngest son Benny who plays on the Fender electric guitar for his father. At just 16 years old, Benny wowed the audience with his skills as an accomplished guitarist. It is very touching to see father and son perform together onstage sharing a musical bond between each other. Merle could be heard proudly exclaiming, “Play it son.” As the evening progressed Merle emerged from his glasses and hat. For the rest of the concert, the audience was allowed to witness his beautiful blue eyes and thick silver hair. At 72 years young, with numerous trials and tribulations behind him Merle still has the chops and the looks. Another highlight of the evening was when Merle surprised the audience by picking up a bright red fiddle. He shared with the audience, “I don’t know what this is going to sound like but...]]></description>
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		<title>Country guitarist Norm Stephens dies in Cottonwood</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/05/country-guitarist-norm-stephens-dies-in-cottonwood/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/05/country-guitarist-norm-stephens-dies-in-cottonwood/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2009 20:03:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=327</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Jim Schultz (Contact) Record Searchlight Online COTTONWOOD &#8211; Norm Stephens, who played guitar with such country music legends as Merle Haggard, Lefty Frizzell and Hank Thompson, died Monday of emphysema at his Cottonwood home. He was 77. Although Stephens was not a household name, the distinctive music that came from his guitar filled, and continues to fill, countless homes, honky-tonks and concert halls throughout the world. And his guitar-playing influenced countless musicians, including Haggard himself. In what was considered a musical match made in heaven, Stephens joined Haggard&#8217;s band, The Strangers, after the music icon learned in 2000 that the guitarist, whom he had long admired, lived only a few miles away from him in Cottonwood. Haggard currently lives in Palo Cedro. &#8220;I was kind of flattered that he wanted me to come out and do some work with him,&#8221; Stephens said in an article on a Web site that pays tribute to pioneer troubadours &#8211; www.pioneertroubadours.com. Stephens &#8211; who loved music, but was not fond of a life on the road and living out of a suitcase &#8211; stopped touring with Haggard a few years ago, said his wife of 35 years, Verna. But he continued to sit in on a few special shows and also recorded with Haggard. &#8220;He had a good life,&#8221; said his wife, who noted that he did not tell her of his storied musical past until shortly before they married. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know he was a world-famous guitar player,&#8221; she said Thursday. But Stephens, who had been in ailing health due to respiratory problems, was devastated by the December death of his 53-year-old Redding stepdaughter, Linda Runyon, who was killed after being struck by a pickup while she was crossing Court Street. That death came about a month after his younger sister, Claudette, died at the age of 70, Verna Stephens said. &#8220;He lost a lot of the fight&#8221; to live after their deaths, she said. Born and raised in Arkansas, Stephens was only 11 years old when he began to learn how to play guitar. He learned on a cheap guitar one of his older brothers left behind at the family&#8217;s Arkansas farm when he joined the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. Stephens left the farm after high school and played at dance halls and rowdy honky-tonks in the Southwest. It was at a beer bar in Big Spring, Texas, that Stephens met Frizzell and they performed together for a few months before going their separate ways. But their paths would soon cross again. Stephens was playing at another club in Big Spring in the early 1950s when Frizzell called from Dallas, saying he had just signed a contract with Columbia Records and wanted to know if Stephens wanted to cut some records with him. &#8220;And I thought, well yeah, why not, it&#8217;s some extra money, the session money,&#8221; Stephens said in a 2001 Record Searchlight article. &#8220;No one ever dreamed they&#8217;d be overnight hits like they were.&#8221; Frizzell recorded...]]></description>
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		<title>Music review: Kristofferson fans Haggard flame</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/04/music-review-kristofferson-fans-haggard-flame/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/04/music-review-kristofferson-fans-haggard-flame/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:04:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=324</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Correspondent &#8211; Friday, April 3, 2009 &#8211; SFGate.com Country music great Merle Haggard doesn&#8217;t do acoustic performances &#8211; he&#8217;s an old-time honky-tonk man &#8211; but he couldn&#8217;t resist the invitation from Kris Kristofferson to do three special joint acoustic concerts. Still, Haggard looked a little flustered when he flubbed a line or his teleprompter man posted the wrong song Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard to know what I&#8217;m doing up here without a band,&#8221; Haggard said. &#8220;I feel like an old stripper without a G-string.&#8221; He may have thought he didn&#8217;t have a band up there, but he brought four musicians, not counting Kristofferson, who spent most of the night strumming his guitar, grinning like a crazy fool and looking over his shoulder, just like any other fan but with a better seat. The two grizzled songwriters don&#8217;t have an ounce of show business between them. They are musicians, and they played fresh, real music that lived, breathed and even wheezed a little up there on the Santa Rosa stage. These two don&#8217;t sing songs, they sculpt them in the air with their voices; timorous and quavery at spots, not always on the beat, but straight from the heart every time. Kristofferson was almost giddy. He could barely contain himself, and when he sang, in fact, he threatened to break character at the end of almost every line. Haggard warmed to his chore, and by the time he threw down an unexpected version of Johnny Cash&#8217;s &#8220;Folsom Prison Blues,&#8221; his 16-year-old son Ben nailing the Luther Perkins guitar part, Hag was cruising. There was no set list. Set list? There was no plan whatsoever. Kristofferson opened the show with a song on his own, Haggard walked out in the middle of Kristofferson&#8217;s introduction and the program tumbled along from there. Kristofferson would sing a song. Haggard would do two or three. When he ran out of ideas of what to play next, he would look over at Kristofferson, who would sing a song and quickly turn the microphone back to Haggard. Haggard was masterful. His version of Jimmie Rodgers&#8217; rarely performed &#8220;T.B. Blues&#8221; was a stunning demonstration of nuance and command, exactly the sort of material only Haggard would have in his repertoire, perfectly suited to this kind of performance. He did plenty of his standard country and western chart hits &#8211; &#8220;Sing Me Back Home,&#8221; &#8220;Mama Tried,&#8221; &#8220;The Bottle Let Me Down,&#8221; &#8220;Today I Started Loving You Again,&#8221; &#8220;Silver Wings&#8221; &#8211; but it was lesser-known songs like &#8220;Rainbow Stew,&#8221; &#8220;If I Could Only Fly&#8221; or &#8220;I Wish I Could Be 30 Again&#8221; that most benefited from the pared-down arrangements. Without the conventional arrangements he uses with his band, Haggard almost delicately etched his vocals. The sturdy songcraft and his surgical vocal performance shouldered the entire load, and it was nothing short of a revelation to hear Haggard open up his music to this timeless...]]></description>
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		<title>NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Keith Urban, John Rich Offer Memorable New Work</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/04/nashville-skyline-keith-urban-john-rich-offer-memorable-new-work/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/04/nashville-skyline-keith-urban-john-rich-offer-memorable-new-work/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:59:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=320</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Both Answer Musical Points Raised By Merle Haggard April 2, 2009; Written by Chet Flippo &#8211; CMT.com Here&#8217;s Merle Haggard in a recent interview with Joel Selvin in the San Francisco Chronicle grousing about current country music: &#8220;We don&#8217;t have the enthusiasm in music right now,&#8221; he says. &#8220;We don&#8217;t even have songs you could date a time period by.&#8221; You know, Merle has earned the right to say what he wants about music or, in fact, just about anything he wants to. But I know, or think I do, what he&#8217;s talking about in both instances. I personally don&#8217;t hear the enthusiasm in much music today. I hear a lot of music by rote, music that is being assembled for radio play and really for no other reason. Or it&#8217;s music that&#8217;s obviously crafted to try to perpetuate a career. I sense that Haggard is talking about music that comes from a genuine love of music and of creating art. You can hear genuine enthusiasm in music, and it can&#8217;t be faked, not with all the forced studio &#8220;whoo&#8217;s&#8221; in the world. I can hear real love for the music in a few things these days. One new CD that&#8217;s brimming with enthusiasm is Keith Urban&#8216;s Defying Gravity. He&#8217;s always had great chops and the ability to make good music. But I feel that now he&#8217;s entering a personal maturity that gives him a sort of unselfconscious confidence to pour out the music that&#8217;s in him. To the extent that it is seemingly effortless. It isn&#8217;t, of course. He put a lot of work into it. But it sounds like it came out seamlessly. Not every song on Gravity necessarily is chock-full of such unselfconscious qualities. I don&#8217;t mean that they are cheerleading songs &#8212; a song such as &#8220;&#8216;Til Summer Comes Around&#8221; is a bittersweet tale &#8212; but they all communicate a celebration of life. So much so that it&#8217;s a pleasure to listen to something like this these days. Especially after I got fitted for my BanjoBeGone filter earpieces (patent pending) which automatically convert banjo licks into your choice of steel guitar or Telecaster guitar sounds. No offense, Keith, but there are banjophobes in the world, who &#8212; except for listening to genuine bluegrass banjo &#8212; break out in hives at the sound. Haggard&#8217;s other observation &#8212; about songs that date a time period &#8212; is something else that I feel is valid. I don&#8217;t mean songs that just name-check current events or are obvious products of a point in time. I mean songs that carry a sense of a certain time, that convey the feel of an era. Songs that don&#8217;t mark a certain place in time are not necessarily timeless. They&#8217;re just not rooted in anything. Listen to any number of songs on the radio that evoke nothing but a passionless, obviously forced attempt at conveying romance or an attempt identification with a social class, say, or a sort of mindless raising hell. What do...]]></description>
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		<title>Country star Merle Haggard stands tall</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/country-star-merle-haggard-stands-tall/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/country-star-merle-haggard-stands-tall/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:41:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=317</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic &#8211; March 29, 2009 As long as people speak of country music, the music of Merle Haggard will live. As his career nears the half-century mark, Haggard&#8217;s imprint is as deeply etched on the music as those of the spiritual forebears he so admires &#8211; Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell &#8211; and he has lived out his Bakersfield childhood dreams beyond imagination. But right now, the country music immortal is feeling very mortal. &#8220;I got lucky,&#8221; he says, a couple of weeks shy of his 72nd birthday, at his home in the foothills outside of Redding. Doctors took out a substantial portion of his lungs in November, after an X-ray revealed lung cancer, he says evenly. &#8220;They got it out. I&#8217;m back to my normal weight. No chemo. No radiation. I got real lucky.&#8221; Within weeks, Haggard was back onstage, taking a two-night shakedown cruise at Buck Owens&#8217; place in Bakersfield. (&#8220;I wanted to verify to myself that I could still do it.&#8221;) He hit the road again seriously in January and reports all but two of 24 dates around the country sold out, and one of those two &#8220;was a Sunday in Mormon country,&#8221; he says. Haggard is sitting in the shade in front of his home. A light breeze jingles the wind chimes hanging from his roof. The spacious ranch house rests on a rise at the north end of the nearly 200 acres he owns outside of town. Mount Lassen hovers over the skyline, and the river that runs through his property rolls along off in the distance over his shoulder. He absent-mindedly scratches the belly of his 14-year-old fox terrier, Mabel. &#8220;She&#8217;s been sick two or three days, maybe dying,&#8221; he says. &#8220;She&#8217;s an old dog. She can&#8217;t hear.&#8221; Haggard can&#8217;t help his thoughts. His childhood friend Dean Holloway, who drove his bus for more than 20 years and co-wrote the Haggard staple &#8220;Big City,&#8221; died of a heart attack the previous week. The memorial was coming up. Haggard jokes about dying, but dark clouds flicker through his hawk eyes. &#8220;Everything&#8217;s really working out for me,&#8221; he says. &#8220;If I can keep my health, my sanity and don&#8217;t have a damned stroke.&#8221; As a tribal elder, Haggard has grown even more valuable than the young buck who made all those sleek country hits in the late &#8217;60s and early &#8217;70s. He has aged into a grizzled philosopher with guitar, a spokesman for nothing but his own cranky point of view, one of the last old masters still painting. At some point in his life, Haggard made a decision to become an artist &#8211; to make music on his own terms, to hell with the restrictive conventions of the country music world &#8211; and, freed to follow his own muse, has produced a series of deep, rich, mature recordings in his later years. His 2000 album for punk-rock label Anti- Records, &#8220;If I Could Only Fly,&#8221; is...]]></description>
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		<title>MERLE HAGGARD &#8211; HAGGARD &amp; PARTON LAND MAJOR COUNTRY MUSIC HONOURS</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/merle-haggard-haggard-parton-land-major-country-music-honours/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/merle-haggard-haggard-parton-land-major-country-music-honours/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:43:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=313</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Contactmusic.com, March 25, 2009 MERLE HAGGARD and DOLLY PARTON have been announced as the early winners at this year&#8217;s (09) Academy of Country Music Awards. Haggard, who is recovering from cancer surgery, and the late Harlan Howard will receive the Poets Award for their songwriting contributions to country music, while Parton will be honoured with the Jim Reeves International Award when the ceremony takes place in Las Vegas on 5 April (09). Other early winners, announced on Tuesday (24Mar09), include Randy Travis, Hank Williams Jr. and Kenny Rogers, who will all receive Cliffie Stone Pioneer Awards, while Toby Keith&#8217;s movie Beer for My Horses will be the recipient of the Tex Ritter Award, which is given to a country music-oriented movie.]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Randy Travis, Hank Williams Jr. Among Early ACM Winners</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/merle-haggard-acm-winners/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/merle-haggard-acm-winners/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:35:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=308</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Written by Craig Shelburne, March 24, 2009 Other Honorees Include Kenny Rogers and the Late Harlan Howard and Jerry Reed Merle Haggard and the late Harlan Howard will receive this year&#8217;s Academy of Country Music Poets Award for their songwriting contributions to the country music canon. The ACM announced the early winners of special awards, industry awards and musician, band and instrumental awards on Tuesday (March 24). Dolly Parton has been chosen to receive the Jim Reeves International Award, in honor of her contributions to taking country music around the world. In addition, recipients of the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award include Randy Travis, Hank Williams Jr., Kenny Rogers, and the late Jerry Reed. Beer for My Horses, the film starring Toby Keith, has been chosen as the recipient of the Tex Ritter Award, given to a country music-oriented movie released and/or receiving major exposure during the preceding calendar year. The Mae Boren Axton Award will go to David Young, in recognition of service to the Academy of Country Music. An ACM employee for more than 20 years, Young is currently its senior director of operations. The ACM special awards listed above are voted on by the ACM board of directors. The ACM also revealed the winners of its musician, band and instrumental awards, as well as the industry categories. Winners were determined by ballot. Musicians include Tom Bukovac (guitarist), Gordon Mote (piano/keyboards), Glenn Worf (bass), Greg Morrow (percussionist/drummer), Dan Dugmore (steel guitar), Aubrey Haynie (fiddle) and Eric Darken and Jelly Roll Johnson (specialty instrument). Chuck Ainlay was named audio engineer of the year, and Tony Brown won producer of the year. The industry awards went to Joe Bar&#8217;s in Chicago (nightclub), Turning Stone Casino in Verona, N.Y. (casino) and the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville (venue). Fran Romeo of Romeo Entertainment won the Don Romeo Talent Buyer of the Year award, and Louis Messina of the Messina Group was named promoter of the year. Early winners will be formally honored at a ceremony in Nashville on Sept. 22. The winners in remaining categories will be revealed on April 5 during the ACM Awards in Las Vegas.]]></description>
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		<title>How does Merle Haggard do it?</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/how-does-merle-haggard-do-it/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/how-does-merle-haggard-do-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:24:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=304</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Story by: Country Musings by Robert Loy, March 2009 This column is being written during the first 100 days of Barack Obama&#8217;s presidency, in a weird national mixture of hope and fear, the likes of which haven&#8217;t been since the days of the great D-word back in the 1930&#8242;s. All of which makes me want to write another political column. And that series of loud sounds you just heard? That was editor Jeff Remz bursting a blood vessel, banging his fist on his desk and shouting &#8220;Over my dead body!&#8221; Don&#8217;t worry, Jeff; I&#8217;m tempted, but I&#8217;m not going to wax political. I know how divisive politics are these days, and I don&#8217;t want to alienate any readers. Besides, I&#8217;ve mellowed a lot lately. I&#8217;m trying these days to see and respect all sides of the issues, realizing that these are dangerous times, and things are not nearly as simple as the haters on both sides on the political spectrum would have us believe. I&#8217;m just trying to sort it all out, and I&#8217;m scared to talk about it because I don&#8217;t want to get into an argument. Maybe if I was Merle Haggard, I could express my political opinions, and nobody would get mad about it. After all, the Hag is the only entertainer I can think of who&#8217;s not only tolerated, but embraced by both sides of the political spectrum as one of their own. To those on the right, Haggard is revered as the writer of Okie from Muskogee and Fightin&#8217; Side of Me. Speaking for those who don&#8217;t approve of marijuana use, draft-card burning and &#8220;running down our country&#8221; earned him a place as one of their spokesmen, and the fact that he wrote a song endorsing Hillary Clinton&#8217;s presidential run does not seem to anger them. They write it off as a sign of advancing senility. And those on the left believe that Haggard&#8217;s been a liberal all along. Listen to songs like If We Make it Through December, Working Man Blues and Daddy Frank, and you&#8217;ll see that Hag&#8217;s heart has always been with the disenfranchised, the poor working class that has historically been the backbone of the Democratic Party. And they&#8217;ll tell you that &#8220;Okie&#8221; was a joke. And the right says, get real, this is the guy after all would receive a full pardon for his crimes from California Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1972, sang for Richard Nixon at the White House and voted for George W. Bush. Never mind who he voted for, the left counters, or who he sang for. What about all the fact that he&#8217;s consistently criticized the oil company backers and the &#8220;politics of fear&#8221; employed by the GOP? And on and on. But the thing is both sides are mad at each other &#8211; so much so that they can&#8217;t speak to each other without vitriol. But nobody&#8217;s mad at Merle Haggard. How does he do that? I honestly don&#8217;t know. I only know two things about...]]></description>
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		<title>Haggard enduring and endearing</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/haggard-enduring-and-endearing/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/haggard-enduring-and-endearing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:18:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=302</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By PRESTON JONES &#8211; Posted on Fri, Mar. 13, 2009 &#8211; Star-Telegram.com DALLAS — Few would call any of Nashville’s legends — George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson — spry, but that doesn’t mean they lack fire. One such icon, Merle Haggard, temporarily brought low by lung cancer late last year, moved deliberately Thursday night as he took the stage at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. But once the standing ovation subsided, the 71-year-old Haggard launched into Big City, his voice weathered but strong. That theme — triumph over adversity — ran through the night as Haggard, backed by a stout 10-piece band, delivered a tenacious, occasionally touching, set showcasing, if nothing else, that they really don’t make ’em like they used to in Music City. A high point was his tough, almost melancholy take on Are the Good Times Really Over: &#8220;Are we rolling downhill/Like a snowball headed for hell?&#8221; Haggard intoned, reaching back to the chaos of the ’60s even as he acknowledged the turmoil of now. Hag’s note-perfect cover of Johnny Cash’s timeless Folsom Prison Blues fit snugly against his tender reading of If We Make It Through December. The songs, like bookends to his eventful life, felt simultaneously reflective and defiant. As with other country music performances at the austere Meyerson, the mood wavered between down-home warmth from the audience and awkward, attentive silence. While the Meyerson is an acoustically ideal venue, it’s hard to have a party in there. Haggard’s son, Noel, who makes his home in Fort Worth, delivered a solid opening set, complete with impressive takes on Cash and Conway Twitty standards. When so many country hopefuls are leaning on pop flash and glossy style to sell their music, artists like Noel Haggard remind you that even if it’s not apparent on the surface, the heart of Nashville’s glory days continues beating.]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard Zings Ex-Label Chief</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/merle-haggard-zings-ex-label-chief/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/merle-haggard-zings-ex-label-chief/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:09:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=299</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[- Award From Country Radio Broadcasters Gerry House, Chuck Collier, Bob McKay, Moon Mullins Are Hall of Famers March 4, 2009; Written by Edward Morris &#8211; CMT Merle Haggard&#8216;s ongoing clash with lung cancer hasn&#8217;t made him any less sharp-tongued than he was in his glory days. In Nashville Tuesday night (March 3) to accept a career achievement award from Country Radio Broadcasters, the feisty superstar used the occasion to lash out at the former head of his one-time label, Epic Records. Prompting the outburst was Emmylou Harris&#8216; wistful performance of Haggard&#8217;s self-penned 1985 hit, &#8220;Kern River,&#8221; a tune she ranked as her Haggard favorite. &#8220;The first time I heard that song,&#8221; she told the audience assembled in the Renaissance Hotel&#8217;s Grand Ballroom, &#8220;I almost drove off the road because it&#8217;s just so good.&#8221; Her praise of &#8220;Kern River&#8221; evidently ignited Haggard&#8217;s memories of a man who didn&#8217;t like the song at all. &#8220;I want to say that there was this other guy &#8212; I can&#8217;t remember his name &#8212; he was head of CBS, and he made fun of my song. He said, &#8216;Who in the hell knows where Kern River is at?&#8217;&#8221; Someone in the audience shouted out the name Haggard had apparently forgotten &#8212; Rick Blackburn, who helmed CBS Records (of which Epic was a division) from 1980 to 1988. On another occasion, Haggard recalled that Blackburn said, &#8220;I&#8217;d like to tell you one more time. I don&#8217;t like &#8216;Kern River.&#8217;&#8221; Haggard continued, &#8220;And I said, &#8216;That&#8217;s about the third time you&#8217;ve told me that.&#8217; He said, &#8216;It&#8217;s more like five times.&#8217; And I said, &#8216;Well, I&#8217;m about five times short of telling you to go to hell.&#8217;&#8221; By now, the crowd was roaring with laughter. But Haggard wasn&#8217;t through yet. &#8220;I said, &#8216;Who do you think you are? You&#8217;re the son-of-a-bitch that sat at that desk over there and fired Johnny Cash. Let it go down in history that you&#8217;re the dumbest son-of-a-bitch I&#8217;ve ever met.&#8217;&#8221; (Blackburn, who dropped Cash from the label in 1986, the year after &#8220;Kern River&#8221; came out, took Haggard&#8217;s tirade in stride. Reached Wednesday (March 4) at his home in Nashville, Blackburn told CMT.com, &#8220;He&#8217;ll get more pleasure out of that [comment] than I&#8217;ll get grief.&#8221;) &#8220;I was supposed to sing tonight,&#8221; Haggard told the audience when he first came onstage. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know if I&#8217;d be able to do it or not [because] I&#8217;m fighting pneumonia. I think I&#8217;m winning.&#8221; He thanked everyone who had prayed for his recovery from cancer. &#8220;I certainly needed it,&#8221; he said. Prior to Harris&#8217; performance, Jack Ingram saluted Haggard by singing his 1982 hit, &#8220;Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver).&#8221; Ingram accompanied himself on guitar, while Harris was backed by Carl Jackson on guitar and Phil Madeira on accordion. In the opening segment of the evening, CRB honored Shelia Shipley-Biddy with its president&#8217;s award. Then, after Haggard&#8217;s appearance, the organization inducted Bob McKay and Moon Mullins into...]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard, Heidi Newfield Meet Radio</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/merle-haggard-heidi-newfield-meet-radio/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/03/merle-haggard-heidi-newfield-meet-radio/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:48:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=281</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[March 2, 2009 — Downtown Nashville will be crowded with country singers and influential broadcasters this week as the 40th annual Country Radio Seminar gets underway. The centerpiece of the conference has radio programmers and decision makers from all over the U.S. descending on Music City to network, share information and get new ideas for their stations during three days of panel discussions and presentations. But CRS wouldn’t exist without the music, and artists and record companies always intersect with the guys who play — or decide not to play — their music. Several acts, including Merle Haggard and the Zac Brown Band, will receive awards. And plenty more — from Heidi Newfield to Little Big Town to Kellie Pickler — will perform during official and unofficial CRS events. It’s wall-to-wall activity, so if your local morning man sounds extremely tired next week, it might be less from getting up early than from never going to sleep! Among the attractions: • Merle will receive a Career Achievement Award during the DJ and Radio Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Tuesday night. Article from Great American Country website.]]></description>
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		<title>Haggard still playing his remarkable music</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/haggard-still-playing-his-remarkable-music/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/haggard-still-playing-his-remarkable-music/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:58:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=273</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[by HILMER WEYLER &#8211; For The Outpost Merle Haggard and his band The Strangers were in Billings Thursday night at The Alberta Bair Theater. My interest is to document the man and the show in Billings. I don’t know everything about Merle Haggard. I just think everyone should know about his night in Billings. Early in January, his show was announced and tickets went on sale Jan. 10. I got in line at the Alberta Bair early and barely got floor-level tickets. All were sold out in a couple of hours. This repeated what happened two years ago. Merle has broad appeal. Professionals, laborers, rich, poor, musical and the tone-deaf flock to see his shows. This appeal is (I think) because so many relate to his life as expressed in his music. He has experienced so much that anything he sings sounds authentic. And the band is so technically good and his very unusual voice make it all great. His sedentary guitar player, Tim Howard, rose to open the show. Then the Milpas Brothers performed some classic country, ending with a touch of Elvis. The Cajun, Joe Emanuel, sang traditional Cajun pieces. Merle’s son Noel played and sang, introducing Merle’s youngest son, Ben. Anyone of these performers could front his own band. They were even better in support of Merle. When Merle started singing it was a performance to keep a smile on your face. This show was highlighted by an animated Merle. Responding to crowd appeals for him to play their favorites, he “declined” explaining the show was perfectly timed to the “second” &#8211; then he proceeded to satisfy requests. About the standard “Okie From Muskogee,” he said, “I wrote it for my dad.” Back then, when asked why, he said “because it had to be written and I was the only one that knew the words.” “Okie” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me” are universal favorites, and he sang both. The obvious favorite in Billings is “Big City,” and it was the highlight. My favorites in the show were “If I Had Left It Up to You,” “I Started Loving You Again,” “White Line Fever” and “Ramblin’ Fever.” He even traded his guitar for his fiddle for an entertaining set. It was a show nobody was ready to have end. His voice is strong in quality and emotion. His family’s experiences from the poor farm in Oklahoma, a boxcar home in Oildale, Calif., to our own Billings, Montana, are brilliantly reflected in the music. Two years ago he told the Gazette’s Jaci Webb, “I keep going to provide for my exes.” This year he said, “It’s my luxurious lifestyle.” Seriously quoted, he has said, “My music is where I live.” It will be almost impossible to find his caliber of success elsewhere. He sells out his dates, continues to write and perform topical music, and his band includes two of his sons, his wife, Theresa, and musicians who have been with him for up to four or five...]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/merle-haggard/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/merle-haggard/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:56:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=271</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From vinyl to CDs, the country music legend keeps on singin&#8217; By Karen Cotton kcotton@wyomingnews.com &#124; Story Source, Wyoming Tribune Eagle Any fan of music knows the name Merle Haggard. Even the casual listener will hear echoes of Haggard on the radio today. Haggard&#8217;s music &#8211; songs that tell the story of his life &#8211; has influenced country and rock since the 1960s. On Feb. 10, fans have the chance of a lifetime to see him perform live at the Cheyenne Civic Center. A few of Haggard&#8217;s 40 No. 1 hits include: &#8220;Branded Man,&#8221; &#8220;Mama Tried,&#8221; &#8220;Okie From Muskogee,&#8221; &#8220;Workin&#8217; Man Blues,&#8221; &#8220;My Favorite Memory,&#8221; &#8220;Fugitive,&#8221; &#8220;Fightin&#8217; Side of Me&#8221; and &#8220;Legend of Bonnie and Clyde.&#8221; His friends and collaborators have ranged from Willie Nelson, George Jones and Conway Twitty, just to name a few. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994. Late last year, Haggard was battling lung cancer and had a lemon-sized tumor removed from his right lung. Haggard took time from his schedule to talk via the phone with us about his health, music career, his famous friends, his brand new double CD project, how he feels about the contemporary country music scene, &#8220;American Idol&#8221; and being called a legend. Q: Why did you decide to tour after you had your lung operation? &#8220;Well, the lung operation left me in better health than I was before. Haggard: &#8220;It was a matter of recuperating over the injury of the surgery. I feel a lot better than I did probably five years prior to surgery. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know I had the problem, you know, so I don&#8217;t have a cough and my lungs they just, in your lung capacity you have three lobes on right side and two on the left, on the top lobe on my right side had a suspended tumor hanging from it. Like a fruit from a tree and it wasn&#8217;t attached to anything. &#8220;They went in and found that they were able to get it and there was no chemo or radiation, or anything like that, your lung expands and fills in where it&#8217;s taken out, so I&#8217;m almost back to full capacity of air, which I haven&#8217;t had for a few years. &#8220;I&#8217;m singing better than I was before the surgery, yes.&#8221; Q: What was the scariest part about your lung operation? Haggard: &#8220;Getting the nerve to do it. &#8220;In some countries they use it as torture. They hang you up and pull lungs out the side of your chest. &#8220;This is much the same: They have to cut your rib bone, take out a piece of your ribs, underneath the scapula, (on) your backside. They lift that up. It&#8217;s very gory. They go inside and take the part of the lung that they wanted out and sew up the rest with metal clamps and it&#8217;s very painful. The first all of thirty days to six weeks you&#8217;re in dire need of Morphine and Percocet and all of...]]></description>
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		<title>Country legend plays to sold-out crowd</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/country-legend-plays-to-sold-out-crowd/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/country-legend-plays-to-sold-out-crowd/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:05:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=266</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By TRAVIS COLEMAN • Tribune Staff Writer • February 14, 2009 &#8220;Haggard&#8221; meant more than just the last name of a country singer for concertgoers Friday night — it stood for honesty, toughness and the essence of a lonesome fugitive. But legend was the most commonly used way to describe Merle Haggard, the original bad boy of country music, who played his string of hits to a sellout crowd of more than 1,700 people Friday night at the Mansfield Theater in Great Falls. Attendees showed up to hear Haggard standards such as &#8220;Okie From Muskogee,&#8221; &#8220;Mama Tried&#8221; and &#8220;Working Man Blues,&#8221; from a voice Rolling Stone Magazine recently named as one the 100 best of the modern era. &#8220;He&#8217;s one of the best singers left,&#8221; said attendee Bobbie Mital. Haggard, 71, is widely recognized as one of the most important country artists to emerge from the 1960s. Attendee Rick Thomas should know — he has watched Haggard since he first blossomed into a star. Thomas grew up in Bakersfield, Calif., when Haggard was molding the honky-tonk sound that rebelled against the slick and polished music coming out of Nashville, Tenn. Thomas remembers hearing Haggard play in a local cafe on countless occasions.&#8221;He&#8217;s a part of America — at least what it used to be,&#8221; said Thomas, who attended the show with his wife, Dee. &#8220;He&#8217;s just part of the good ol&#8217; country music,&#8221; Dee Thomas said. &#8220;It may be the last time we see him.&#8221; Haggard was appearing on stage about three months after having surgery to remove lung cancer in November. The Country Music Hall of Famer has tour dates scheduled through July, and will next appear in Butte today. Bret Kuntz and his wife, Rose, drove from Harlem for the show. Bret Kuntz said he admires Haggard&#8217;s authenticity. But of all Haggard&#8217;s fans in the house Friday night, Misty Denny was unquestionably the biggest. The Rocky Boy native has been to seven Haggard concerts since 1998 — all in a pursuit to sing with the country legend on-stage. The would-be country singer&#8217;s strategy to landing a duet was to display her giant poster reading: &#8220;Let me sing with you Merle&#8221; from her front-row seat. &#8220;I love the guy. He&#8217;s the poet of the common man,&#8221; said Denny, 31. &#8220;He&#8217;s got a song for every man.&#8221; Like many in the audience, Denny grew up on Haggard&#8217;s music. Haggard&#8217;s tune &#8220;Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star&#8221; was her bedtime lullaby, she said. &#8220;I was in the womb listening to it,&#8221; Denny said.]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard in Great Falls tonight (2-13-09)</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/merle-haggard-in-great-falls-tonight-2-13-09/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/merle-haggard-in-great-falls-tonight-2-13-09/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2009 21:47:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=259</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Country singer Merle Haggard resists current trends, maintains songs should have something to say By JENI DODD • Tribune Staff Writer • February 13, 2009 The original bad boy of country music, Merle Haggard brings his songs of the common man to the Mansfield Theater stage at 7:30 tonight. Famous for hits including &#8220;Okie From Muskogee,&#8221; &#8220;Mama Tried&#8221; and &#8220;Working Man Blues,&#8221; Haggard is widely recognized as one the most important country artists to emerge from the 1960s. Haggard was born in 1937, outside Bakersfield, Calif. His parents, Jim and Flossie, moved the family there after their Oklahoma farm burned. They lived in an old boxcar that they converted into a home.Haggard&#8217;s rebellious streak began when he was 9 after the death of his father. Lost and stunned by the death, Haggard began to act out, hopping freight trains and committing petty crimes. Haggard&#8217;s talent for music proved a steadying influence for the troubled youngster. His father had been a musician and Haggard took to it, first as a Bob Wills fan, then idolizing Lefty Frizzell. &#8220;For three or four years I didn&#8217;t sing anything but Lefty Frizzell songs,&#8221; Haggard told the Music City News. &#8220;And then, because Lefty was a fan of Jimmie Rodgers, I learned to imitate him, too.&#8221; Haggard got a chance to see Frizzell perform when he was 14.&#8221;He was dressed in white — heroes usually are,&#8221;Haggard said. His love of music wasn&#8217;t enough to keep him out of trouble. By age 15, though innocent, he and a friend were picked up on robbery charges, leading to his first stint in jail. By the time he was 20, Haggard was doing time in San Quentin. &#8220;Going to prison has one of a few effects,&#8221; he told Salon in 2004. &#8220;It can make you worse, or it can make you understand and appreciate freedom. I learned to appreciate freedom when I didn&#8217;t have any.&#8221; After his release from San Quentin in 1960, he joined the Bakersfield country scene, a honky-tonk sound that was dramatically different from the slick and polished music coming out of Nashville. Haggard joined Las Vegas star Wynn Stewart&#8217;s band in 1962 as a bassist. Haggard soon recorded, &#8220;Sing A Sad Song,&#8221; a Stewart song, which went into the top 20. Subsequent singles didn&#8217;t do as well, until Haggard recorded the Liz Anderson song, &#8220;(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers,&#8221; which went into the Top 10 and brought him to the attention of Capitol Records. He proved himself a hit maker with three Top 10 singles in 1967, including his first No. 1, &#8220;The Fugitive.&#8221; His next No. 1 song, &#8220;Branded Man,&#8221; was a self-penned description of the experiences of a man released from prison who is trying to put the experience behind him. According to Haggard, Johnny Cash encouraged him to stop trying to hide his past and address it directly in verse. &#8220;I was bull-headed about my career. I didn&#8217;t want to talk about being in prison,&#8221; Haggard recalls, &#8220;but Cash said...]]></description>
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		<title>SOUNDS: Merle Haggard</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/sounds-merle-haggard/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/sounds-merle-haggard/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:17:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=250</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Country singer Merle Haggard resists current trends, maintains songs should have something to say Article by Jason Bracelin &#8211; Jan 06, 2009. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Midway through the conversation, Merle Haggard compares himself to a rapper. At first, this seems like a reach &#8212; a 71-year-old country cuss, white as the Death Valley sand dunes of his native Southern California, professing an allegiance with a genre born on inner-city streets so far removed from the wide-open spaces of his home terrain. But it makes sense, in a way. Remember where Haggard came from: He&#8217;s a storyteller first, once a prisoner of his lesser impulses, before finding freedom as a voice for those who didn&#8217;t always have one, i.e., the rank and file, the people you ride the bus with, store clerks and petty crooks and everyone else who makes the world go &#8217;round without much applause. Isn&#8217;t that, in a nutshell, also the broad outlines of hip-hop? &#8220;I&#8217;m sort of like a country rapper, with a melody,&#8221; Haggard says from his home in Redding, Calif., on a recent morning. &#8220;I think we can look over on the rap charts and see that there&#8217;s a message in there &#8212; and people are still looking for a message. The rappers are doing something different. How long will it take us in the country field to do that?&#8221; Haggard poses a fair question, one that he&#8217;s long tried to answer. He&#8217;s been called a lot of things &#8212; a criminal, a patriot, a jingoist, a pioneer &#8212; and an argument could made for each of those tags at some point in his long, better-than-50-year career. With a voice as deep as a drinking well, Haggard, along with Buck Owens, was one of the central figures behind the &#8220;Bakersfield Sound,&#8221; named after their hometown, which eschewed the overwrought production values common in country at the time in favor of something earthier, more stripped down, more human. In the &#8217;60s, when Haggard emerged, he was ahead of his time. More than 40 years later, he still is &#8212; though he&#8217;d probably rather not be. In recent times, country music has turned back to the glossy, more superfluous sounds that Haggard once defined himself against. Nashville tends to avoid social commentary &#8212; it&#8217;s divisive, why alienate any demographic? Hence, the airwaves haven&#8217;t been too kind to country&#8217;s old guard or newer acts who&#8217;ve attempted to keep the outlaw country ethos alive. &#8220;Have you heard this new hot country radio?&#8221; fellow country lifer George Jones asked the crowd at a sold-out show at the Silverton recently. &#8220;They quit playin&#8217; them good ol&#8217; drinkin&#8217; songs.&#8221; He then took a second to ponder his career, if this had always been the case. &#8220;I tell ya what, I&#8217;d be without a job.&#8221; Haggard can relate. &#8220;I guess we&#8217;re from a different place,&#8221; he says of contemporary country radio. &#8220;The program directors, they don&#8217;t want anything in a song that causes you to look up from your computer. I...]]></description>
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		<title>Two Legends Two Guitars</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/two-legends-two-guitars/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/two-legends-two-guitars/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:07:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=231</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wells Fargo Center for the Arts &#8211; Feb. 4, 2009 Merle Haggard &#38; Kris Kristofferson An Acoustic Evening • Together for the first time One of only three performances nationwide, this rare acoustic concert experience features two legendary singer-songwriters performing together for the first time. Kris Kristofferson has an unusual resume. Texas-born, football star and Golden Gloves boxer in college, Rhodes scholar at Oxford, Army captain and chopper pilot, studio janitor, part-time bartender, leading man opposite Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda. But on his passport, under occupation it reads songwriter. And that, more than anything, sums up the essence of Kris Kristofferson. You can thank Merle Haggard for electric country, &#8217;cause he invented it! An original “Outlaw,” Haggard is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of country music history. He’s recorded more than 600 songs (about 250 of them his own compositions), had 40 No. 1 hits, and his “Today I Started Loving You Again” has been recorded by nearly 400 other artists. Visit the Kris Kristofferson website at kriskristofferson.com Image curtisy of  Wells Fargo Center for the Arts]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard, Zac Brown Band Coming to Bonnaroo</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/merle-haggard-zac-brown-band-coming-to-bonnaroo/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/02/merle-haggard-zac-brown-band-coming-to-bonnaroo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=244</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Story from: CMT News &#8211; February 3, 2009 Merle Haggard, the Zac Brown Band, Cherryholmes and the SteelDrivers will be joining Bruce Springsteen &#38; the E Street Band, Phish, the Beastie Boys and Nine Inch Nails at the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival set for June 11-14 in Manchester, Tenn. Other country, bluegrass and Americana-leaning acts booked for the festival include Wilco, Elvis Costello, the Del McCoury Band, the David Grisman Quintet, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case, Robert Earl Keen, Tift Merritt, Alejandro Escovedo and Todd Snider. The lineup also features TV on the Radio, Al Green, David Byrne, Snoop Dogg, Allen Toussaint, Animal Collective, Gov&#8217;t Mule, Ben Harper, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Femi Kuti and Mars Volta. Bonnaroo takes place on a 700-acre farm located 60 miles south of Nashville. More than 120 musical acts and 20 comedians will perform at the festival. Tickets go on sale Saturday (Feb. 7) at www.bonnaroo.com and are available in five installments of $50 each. Story from: CMT News]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard’s song of hope</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/merle-haggard%e2%80%99s-song-of-hope/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/merle-haggard%e2%80%99s-song-of-hope/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:28:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=212</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One day before the inauguration of Barack Obama, a song titled “Hopes Are High” appeared on the website of country icon Merle Haggard.]]></description>
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		<title>From vinyl to CDs</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/from-vinyl-to-cds/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/from-vinyl-to-cds/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:24:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Merle Haggard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=208</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From vinyl to CDs, the country music legend keeps on singin&#8217; Article by Karen Cotton &#8211; Jan 25, 2009. Any fan of music knows the name Merle Haggard. Even the casual listener will hear echoes of Haggard on the radio today. Haggard&#8217;s music &#8211; songs that tell the story of his life &#8211; has influenced country and rock since the 1960s. On Feb. 10, fans have the chance of a lifetime to see him perform live at the Cheyenne Civic Center. A few of Haggard&#8217;s 40 No. 1 hits include: &#8220;Branded Man,&#8221; &#8220;Mama Tried,&#8221; &#8220;Okie From Muskogee,&#8221; &#8220;Workin&#8217; Man Blues,&#8221; &#8220;My Favorite Memory,&#8221; &#8220;Fugitive,&#8221; &#8220;Fightin&#8217; Side of Me&#8221; and &#8220;Legend of Bonnie and Clyde.&#8221; His friends and collaborators have ranged from Willie Nelson, George Jones and Conway Twitty, just to name a few. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994. Late last year, Haggard was battling lung cancer and had a lemon-sized tumor removed from his right lung. Haggard took time from his schedule to talk via the phone with us about his health, music career, his famous friends, his brand new double CD project, how he feels about the contemporary country music scene, &#8220;American Idol&#8221; and being called a legend. Q: Why did you decide to tour after you had your lung operation? &#8220;Well, the lung operation left me in better health than I was before. Haggard: &#8220;It was a matter of recuperating over the injury of the surgery. I feel a lot better than I did probably five years prior to surgery. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know I had the problem, you know, so I don&#8217;t have a cough and my lungs they just, in your lung capacity you have three lobes on right side and two on the left, on the top lobe on my right side had a suspended tumor hanging from it. Like a fruit from a tree and it wasn&#8217;t attached to anything. &#8220;They went in and found that they were able to get it and there was no chemo or radiation, or anything like that, your lung expands and fills in where it&#8217;s taken out, so I&#8217;m almost back to full capacity of air, which I haven&#8217;t had for a few years. &#8220;I&#8217;m singing better than I was before the surgery, yes.&#8221; Q: What was the scariest part about your lung operation? Haggard: &#8220;Getting the nerve to do it. &#8220;In some countries they use it as torture. They hang you up and pull lungs out the side of your chest. &#8220;This is much the same: They have to cut your rib bone, take out a piece of your ribs, underneath the scapula, (on) your backside. They lift that up. It&#8217;s very gory. They go inside and take the part of the lung that they wanted out and sew up the rest with metal clamps and it&#8217;s very painful. The first all of thirty days to six weeks you&#8217;re in dire need of Morphine and Percocet and all of that &#8230;...]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard on Barack Obama</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/merle-haggard-on-barack-obama/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/merle-haggard-on-barack-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:42:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=198</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Country Music Hall of Fame member Merle Haggard was among the millions who tuned in Tuesday to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation’s first African American president.]]></description>
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		<title>Haggard, crowd get to know each other</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/haggard-crowd-get-to-know-each-other/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/haggard-crowd-get-to-know-each-other/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:32:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>MerleHaggard.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/?p=278</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Merle keeps it intimate in first show after cancer surgery BY SHELLIE BRANCO, Californian staff writer sbranco@bakersfield.com &#124; Friday, Jan 2 2009 11:09 PM &#8211; Updated: Wednesday, Jan 7 2009 Merle Haggard stopped cold when he came to the line “a joint was a bad place to be” on “Are The Good Times Really Over.” He couldn’t make it on the second attempt, either. As he told Friday night’s crowd at Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, that joint he smoked back in ‘92 kept him high for 25 years, he joked, and provided him some kind of weird experience that involved birds flying out of his body. There was more pathos than humor in the way the lung cancer survivor kidded about taking up Camels at age five and learning to smoke on the Kern River, back when a Camel smelled natural and good. Despite a wavering voice — and ditching that habit of toking before taking the stage — Haggard proved he could still put on a hell of a show. He performs again tonight at the Palace. The hometown legend chose Buck’s place to host the first performances since his November lung cancer surgery at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital. Earlier that day he attended the unveiling of his star on the Fox Theater’s walk of fame with his family in attendance. He told the media this show would be a test, to “see if I can do it.” Merle’s old friend Sonny Langley started the show with an acoustic set that included a little Lefty Frizzell and Marty Robbins. He told the crowd one woman came all the way from Australia to see Merle. Langley probably felt like a bit of home for a gal from Oz, with his quiet, ‘round-the-campfire style reminiscent of the gentle drover songman Slim Dusty. North Carolina’s young Malpass brothers made the ladies scream with their knee-shaking Elvis and vintage Hank Williams brand of country. Chris Malpass opened last year with Haggard at the Fox Theater and has become something of his protege. The richness of Haggard’s voice is still there, though tired and weakened at points, or perhaps the intimacy of the venue called for subtlety. Either way an eager fan in the crowd could yell something — “We love you” or “Kern River” — and be heard well enough to invite a response. In a rare move, when the audience yelled “Kern River,” he actually indulged the request. “I went over to the Kern River today and it was dry,” he said. “Where did they put it? Did the government get it?” With banter between Merle and the audience, the Palace felt more like an extra large house party. He kicked off the show with “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink.” Merle had an eye on young Binion Haggard’s guitar solos, a sweet mentorship between father and son. “Going Where The Lonely Go,” with gentle, subdued backing by the Strangers, seemed to take on a new and poignant meaning after surgery....]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard Doing &#039;Better Every Day&#039; After Lung Cancer Surgery</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/merle-haggard-doing-better/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/merle-haggard-doing-better/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Merle Haggard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/_merleswp/?p=171</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Story by: Elleen Finan &#8211; People &#8211; January 21, 2009 05:30 PM EST Just two months after undergoing lung cancer surgery, Merle Haggard says he&#8217;s back in business. &#8220;I&#8217;m doing real well – a little better every day,&#8221; the country legend tells PEOPLE. &#8220;I have a little bicycle in the back room I&#8217;m starting to exercise on and I&#8217;m going into the studio to see how my voice sounds.&#8221; Haggard, 71, had surgery in November to remove a lemon-sized tumor. &#8220;Most of the reports were like, &#8216;He&#8217;s got six months to live!&#8217; There was never any indication of that,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I lost the upper lobe of my right lung where there was a tumor suspended like a fruit on a tree. But there was no chemo and I got real lucky.&#8221; Haggard was a heavy cigarette smoker until he gave up his Camels in 1992, but insists his cancer wasn&#8217;t caused by smoking. Post surgery, Haggard has a new outlook. &#8220;I feel like I&#8217;ve extended my life,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I&#8217;m in better shape than when I went in.&#8221; Still Writing Songs The singer already has tour dates planned. &#8220;I need an enormous amount of money to maintain my lifestyle so I&#8217;ve got to go to work!&#8221; he jokes. &#8220;The economy requires it!&#8221; He&#8217;s also back to work penning new songs, including a new tune inspired by President Barack Obama called &#8220;Hopes Are High,&#8221; which he wrote two days before the inauguration. A sampling of Haggard&#8217;s lyrics: &#8220;We got a new style with a sincere smile/And a new song to sing along/And we&#8217;ve got sunshine and a new guy/And hopes are high/Hopes are high&#8221; The song has a sunny outlook, but Haggard says he&#8217;s realistic about the new president. &#8220;I can&#8217;t see that one man can walk into turmoil like this and do much about it,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I don&#8217;t look for him to change anything overnight.&#8221; Story by: Elleen Finan &#8211; People]]></description>
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		<title>Haggard pens new song in honor of Obama</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/haggard-pens-new-song-in-honor-of-obama/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/haggard-pens-new-song-in-honor-of-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:36:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Merle Haggard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/_merleswp/?p=181</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Story by: The Bakersfield Californian &#8211; Tuesday, Jan 20 2009 4:22 PM Country legend and Oildale favorite son Merle Haggard was so moved by the historic events unfolding in Washington this week that he wrote a song praising President Barack Obama. Haggard penned “Hopes Are High” late Sunday night and was recording it Tuesday, according to publicist Tresa Redburn. Haggard made headlines in 2007 when he wrote a song for Hillary Clinton, Obama’s rival among Democrats for the party’s nomination for president. But he told Billboard.com that he wasn’t trying to stir any pots with the song. “I’m just reacting to the news,” he was quoted as saying. Haggard, currently between record labels, hopes to have the tune on the Internet in a week, Redburn said. “Hopes Are High” Hopes are high, faith is strong If we all try we can get along Cause there&#8217;s a new day and a brighter day With a new song to sing along And there&#8217;s sunshine and blue sky And hopes are high There&#8217;s a blue bird atop a tree Singing loud for you and me He&#8217;s got a new note and a brighter note That we should sing and let ring Cause there&#8217;s sunshine and a blue sky And hopes are high We&#8217;ve got the bad times behind us And the Good times up ahead Bet your money on the promise land And the good things that He said We got a new style with a sincere smile And a new song to sing along And we’ve got sunshine and a new guy And hopes are high Hopes are high We’ve got the bad times behind us And we&#8217;ve got the good times up ahead Put your money on America And the good things he said Cause there’s a new day and a brighter day With a new song to sing along And there’s sunshine and blue sky And hopes are high]]></description>
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		<title>A New Song</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/a-new-song/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/a-new-song/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:39:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Merle Haggard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hag Editorial]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/_merleswp/?p=5</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[" Some have referred to me as America's Poet of the common man". And I have written something that may be just right for the moment.]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard comes to Cheyenne</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/merle-haggard-comes-to-cheyenne/</link>
		<comments>http://merlehaggard.com/2009/01/merle-haggard-comes-to-cheyenne/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:50:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Merle Haggard</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merlehaggard.com/_merleswp/?p=25</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The country musician has collaborated with Willlie Nelson, George Jones and Conway Twitty. By Karen Cotton kcotton@wyomingnews.com All it takes is a glance at Merle Haggard&#8217;s extensive discography that dates back to 1965 to figure out why he&#8217;s a country legend. A few of his 40 number one hits include: &#8220;Branded Man,&#8221; &#8220;Mama Tried,&#8221; &#8220;Okie From Muskogee,&#8221; &#8220;Workin&#8217; Man Blues,&#8221; &#8220;My Favorite Memory,&#8221; &#8220;Fugitive,&#8221; &#8220;Fightin&#8217; Side of Me&#8221; and &#8220;Legend of Bonnie and Clyde.&#8221; Today at 10 a.m., you can buy tickets to see this country icon live at the Cheyenne Civic Center on Feb. 10. Haggard&#8217;s friends and collaborators have ranged from Willie Nelson to George Jones and Conway Twitty &#8211; just to name a few. Late last year, Haggard was dealing with lung cancer and had a lemon-sized tumor removed from his right lung. According to his Web site, doctors removed the upper lobe of his right lung, and Haggard said he does not require any radiation or chemotherapy. He now has a clean bill of health and is touring harder in 2009 than he ever has before. Dru Rohla, the director of the Cheyenne Civic Center, said Haggard&#8217;s management approached him about a possible February performance in Cheyenne. &#8220;It&#8217;s an opportunity to bring back a country Western legend to Cheyenne,&#8221; Rohla said. &#8220;The last time he played here at the Cheyenne Civic Center was in July of 2000, and the show went very well.&#8221; Rohla said the 2000 show gave viewers the opportunity to witness someone who had been perfecting his craft for several decades. &#8220;It&#8217;s an experience to witness an entertainer who has that ability to project his music that is basically timeless,&#8221; Rohla said. Initially, he thought the 2000 show would only draw an older audience. He was wrong. &#8220;The people who bought tickets were younger,&#8221; he said. On Thursday, a 23-year-old gentleman and Haggard fan called the Cheyenne Civic Center asking about tickets, Rohla said. &#8220;He said he&#8217;s his favorite country singer of all time,&#8221; Rohla said. &#8220;That&#8217;s the great thing with Merle Haggard. He can span that generation gap.&#8221; Haggard&#8217;s bio says that he&#8217;s considered one of the greatest influences in country music. Haggard has charted a multitude of Top Ten songs and has won just about every music award that is possible for a performer and a songwriter. He received the great honor in 1994 of being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. &#8220;In the Country Western music industry, there are few legendary, icon status performers left,&#8221; Rohla said. &#8220;There&#8217;s Merle along with Willie Nelson, Ray Price and Charlie Pride, in a short list of Country Western legends that are still performing.&#8221; Merle Haggard Tickets for the country legend&#8217;s show at the Civic Center go on sale at 10 a.m. today When: Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m. Where: Cheyenne Civic Center, 510 W. 20th St. Tickets: $42-$50 More info: 637-6363, www.cheyenneciviccenter.org Merle Haggard in Casper When: Feb. 11, 7:30 pm Where: Casper Events Center, Number One Events Drive, Casper Tickets: $42-$52...]]></description>
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		<title>Merle Haggard beats lung cancer</title>
		<link>http://merlehaggard.com/2008/12/merle-haggard-beats-lung-cancer/</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:47:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Merle Haggard</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[LOS ANGELES (Reuters) &#8211; Merle Haggard is not letting a bout with lung cancer get in the way of his ambitious touring and recording plans. Seven weeks after the 71-year-old country legend had a lemon-sized tumor removed in what he calls &#8220;the greatest test of my fortitude,&#8221; he said on Wednesday that he expects to work harder in 2009 than he has in 20 years. Haggard says he is singing better now that he is in the throes of kicking his daily marijuana habit. More importantly, the son of Depression-era Dust Bowl migrants from Oklahoma views himself as a cheerleader during tough times. &#8220;I think we can stir up some good humor out there among the folks that are crying for good news, and just give them a moment&#8217;s happiness,&#8221; he told Reuters. Haggard will play his first concerts in a little over two months on Friday and Saturday in his central California hometown of Bakersfield. They will be the first shows of his life where he has not loosened up before with either tobacco or marijuana, he said. &#8220;So it&#8217;s gonna be interesting as to what kind of a show comes out of this body that&#8217;s used to performing the other way.&#8221; Haggard, who once derided pot-smoking hippies in his 1969 hit &#8220;Okie From Muskogee,&#8221; got hooked on marijuana after a doctor said it was a good substitute for his Valium habit. WOMEN&#8217;S PRISONS He gave up a few times over the years, but &#8220;nothing was funny,&#8221; he said. He quit again, four days before going under the knife on November 3, and prays that he does not lose his creative mojo. Doctors removed the upper lobe of his right lung, and Haggard said he does not require any radiation or chemotherapy. With a clean bill of health, he is mapping out his 2009 itinerary and is eyeing some unusual venues, namely churches, hospitals and prisons. &#8220;Especially women&#8217;s prisons, they get overlooked,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We played a women&#8217;s prison in Wyoming one time, and it was the greatest response I&#8217;ve ever received in my life. Forty women was all that were there, and 40 women cried when we left.&#8221; Haggard can relate to that crowd. From the ages of 14 to 23, he was in and out of institutions for various petty crimes. He spent his 21st birthday behind bars at San Quentin State Prison, where he served nearly three years for burglary. In 1959, prisoner 45200 watched Johnny Cash perform there. Haggard eventually found fame in the late 1960s with such chart-topping tunes as &#8220;Branded Man,&#8221; which was inspired by his fear that his criminal past would become public knowledge. A follow-up ballad &#8220;Sing Me Back Home&#8221; was inspired by a San Quentin buddy who eventually was executed. With 39 No. 1 hits to his credit, Haggard ranks alongside Cash, George Jones and Willie Nelson as a giant of country music. But his elegantly crafted tunes have drawn from all musical genres, including, folk, pop, jazz, blues and...]]></description>
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