Merle Haggard Dead on 79th Birthday

RIP. 2016 has been brutal.

Yeah, ouch, Merle. But thank you for all the songs. I used to have a real snotty attitude about country music, but your great stuff was a big part of educating me how wrong I was.

Go and sing on, you're already missed.

Huh, wow!

Genuine guy, influential artist. To be missed.

caw

That's too bad. I always liked Merle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffHcGlF0xDw

Godspeed, buddy.

Just about five years ago (August 2011), we made the decision to end our fulltime RV trip and settle in Muskogee (we had visited here about 6 months prior). As we hit the exit ramp off I-44, what comes on the radio but "Okie From Muskogee." I thought it was a pretty cool welcome to the area.

Merle always struck me as one of the Gentlemen of country music.

RIP Okie from Muskogee

Merle Haggard has passed at 79.

Merle Haggard, the grizzled country music legend whose songs such as "Okie from Muskogee" and "Fightin' Side of Me" made him a voice for the workingman and the outsider, has died. He was 79.

Haggard died Wednesday, his birthday, of complications from pneumonia at his home in Northern California, his agent Lance Roberts told CNN.

Haggard recorded more than three dozen No. 1 country hits in a musical career that spanned six decades, from the 1960s into the 2010s. He overcame an early life of petty crime and a prison term in San Quentin to develop a rugged, outlaw image that helped sell millions of records.

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The Haskins beat you to it Vince
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?317737-Merle-Haggard-Dead-on-79th-Birthday

Oops.

Well, I'm guessing as the forums' official Okie from Muskogee, I should say most people here hate that song.

But LOVE Merle Haggard.

I think he was a great songwriter, and I had the pleasure of meeting him years ago at an Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame event. He was a lot shorter than I assumed he would be.

He was scheduled to headline a music festival we're having here in June, so I'm thinking now there's going to be an all-star tribute to him instead.

From one Okie from Muskogee to another, Farewell.

Farewell, Sir. You were a helluva storyteller.

So sad. RIP to one of country's greatest.

RIP

agree we've lost some major music dudes this year.

He was one of my favorites. "Okie from Muskogee" had a catchy rhythm, but I thought he had many others that were better, and I've read that he came to regret the sentiments of that one somewhat himself. I liked almost all his stuff, but especially "Sing Me Back Home" and "Kern River." He'll be greatly missed.

One of the icons of country, for sure. They don't come any more authentic, and in these days of country pop we will not see his like again.

Here's one of my favorites of his, less well known than some.

Lord Don't Give Up On Me.

Another music legend passes. It's been a bad year so far. RIP.

Random but true - Merle and my spouse are cousins. Or rather, spouse's Gramps and Merle were cousins. Grew up together a little bit in California, though Gramps was older (actually born in Muskogee and driven west by the Dust Bowl) and weird family history drove the two coast sides of the family apart. Spouse met him briefly as a little one, iirc.

But the family resemblance trips me out so much. Gramps and Merle could very well have been twins. And spouse is a more delicate version - though it's all there in the brow and nose.

Anyway, this offshoot of the Haggard family tree will miss you, Merle.