The Hag (Part II)

Where I left off in the last issue when Merle Haggard recorded “My Friends are Gonna be Strangers,” that song started his career off and running. In 1967, Haggard recorded “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive.” Also written by Liz Anderson, this song became Merle’s first number-one single. The same year, he recorded his first album, “Branded Man,” with his new band “The Strangers.” With the immediate success of the songs from this album – “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive,” “Branded Man,” “Sing Me Back Home,” and “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde” – the album was labeled the finest of its time. This new album showcased his band, specifically Roy Nichols on lead guitar, Ralph Mooney on steel guitar, and the vocal harmony of M12erle’s then-wife, Bonnie Owens. Bonnie had been married to Buck Owens and was a successful solo performer in her own right. She was the newly formed Academy of Country Music Association’s first-ever “Female Vocalist of the Year” in 1965. Her debut album “Don’t Take Advantage of Me” hit the top five on the country album charts. However, Bonnie Owens had no further hit singles; she mainly became known for her background harmonies on Merle Haggard’s hits such as “Sing Me Back Home” and “Branded Man.” Towards the end of the 1960s, Haggard composed several number one hits including “Mama Tried”, “Hungry Eyes,” and many more. Merle’s producer, Ken Nelson, took a hands-off approach to producing Merle and his music, saying that when he first started recording Merle, he became so enamored with his singing that he would forget what else was going on. He also said Merle’s songs were the best in country music and that no one else could write a song like him. Haggard’s songs attracted attention from outside the country music field. The Everly Brothers covered “Sing Me Back Home” and “Mama Tried” on their country-rock album in 1968. Haggard’s songs were recorded by other artists such as The Byrds and Joan Baez, Even Dean Martin recorded “I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am,” and The Grateful Dead recorded “Mama Tried.” In 1969, Merle Haggard and The Strangers recorded “Okie from Muskogee,” a song reflecting Merle’s pride in being from Middle America where people are conventionally patriotic, don’t smoke marijuana, don’t take LSD and don’t protest by burning their draft cards or otherwise challenging authority. Merle began performing this song at his concerts and was astonished at the reaction it received. The studio version topped the charts in 1969 and remained number one for a month. It also hit number one on the billboard all-genre singles chart and became Merle’s biggest hit up to that time, surpassed only by his crossover Christmas hit, “If We Make it Through December” in 1973. Merle wrote and recorded songs about things that happened in real life, about the way he felt about his country, and songs from the experiences of his band members and friends. Because of these songs, Haggard became known as “the poet of the common man.” The nickname came among the many awards that Merle Haggard received – including achievement awards such as being inducted into the Song Writers Hall of Fame (1977), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1994), and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006). But the one award that Merle cherished the most was “The Kennedy Center Honor” received on December 4, 2010, from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Merle Haggard continued to write and perform for over five decades and influenced other country greats to follow their passion for traditional country music – performers such as George Strait, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Brooks and Dunn, Garth Brooks, and many more. Needless to say, I am an avid Merle Haggard fan and always will be. In late 2015, merle’s health begin to fail and on his birthday, April 6, 2016, he passed away. Like I did when Hank Williams Sr., died in 1953, I cried because I felt I had lost a friend. I will close for now, and in the next issue, I will go into other classic country greats that, in my opinion, made classic traditional country music so great.