Merle Haggard 1937-2016

April 6, 2016 12:26 PM

Merle Haggard 1937-2016

O: How do you feel about being closely identified with the politics of "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side Of Me" now?

MH: Oh, I must have been an idiot. It's documentation of the uneducated that lived in America at the time, and I mirror that. I always have. Staying in touch with the working class... but it's pretty easy to lie to me. You could lie to me...

AV Club Interview

Merle Haggard Live Full Show 2015

He was one of the greatest....

posted by y2karl (136 comments total)

Is 2016 to be the year music died!?

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posted by Radiophonic Oddity at 12:28 PM on April 6, 2016 [6 favorites]

I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:29 PM on April 6, 2016 [17 favorites]

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posted by doctor_negative at 12:29 PM on April 6, 2016

Merle Haggard - That's The Way Loves Goes
posted by y2karl at 12:29 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by jim in austin at 12:32 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by parki at 12:32 PM on April 6, 2016

. Darn, kinda thought he was too tough to die.
posted by octothorpe at 12:33 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard - Pancho and Lefty


Anybody else cry a bit? I did. Saw him in the fall, long time fan.
posted by readery at 12:34 PM on April 6, 2016 [6 favorites]

"sing me back home ..."
posted by pyramid termite at 12:34 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by doctornemo at 12:35 PM on April 6, 2016

How could I possibly pick a favorite out of all he wrote or sang? Impossible to choose just one. (And oh god yes, 'Pancho and Lefty'....)

Thanks for all the memories, Merle Haggard.
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posted by easily confused at 12:35 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by Atom Eyes at 12:35 PM on April 6, 2016

♪
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:36 PM on April 6, 2016

RIP, Hag.

I love that Merle wanted follow up "Okie From Muskogee" with the interracial love song "Irma Jackson." Shows what a complicated man he was.
posted by jonmc at 12:37 PM on April 6, 2016 [5 favorites]

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posted by Ber at 12:37 PM on April 6, 2016

I can’t remember ever having so many greats die in such a short period. Unbelievable. When I was a kid Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash were like the gods.
posted by bongo_x at 12:39 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

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posted by Rustic Etruscan at 12:40 PM on April 6, 2016

January 1, 1958 - Inmate Merle Haggard hears Johnny Cash play San Quentin State Prison
posted by y2karl at 12:40 PM on April 6, 2016 [18 favorites]

"He was my brother, my friend. I will miss him."

-- Willie Nelson
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:41 PM on April 6, 2016 [8 favorites]

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posted by Joey Michaels at 12:42 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by From Bklyn at 12:43 PM on April 6, 2016

I was introduced to his music in high school--it was used as the incidental music for a play I worked on.

I guess he really is a skybo* now.

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* it's a new kind of hobo for planes
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:44 PM on April 6, 2016

Re: MeTa
posted by y2karl at 12:45 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

They don't make 'em like Merle anymore.

Working Man Blues
Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today
Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down
Cherokee Maiden
with the Texas Playboys
posted by entropicamericana at 12:45 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

2012 interview (GQ)
posted by user92371 at 12:45 PM on April 6, 2016

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Then-US president Ronald Reagan expunged his criminal record in 1972.

I rather doubt that.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:47 PM on April 6, 2016 [9 favorites]

Ornery
The Fighter
posted by entropicamericana at 12:48 PM on April 6, 2016

So from last year's Riot Fest lineup, Lemmy and Merle Haggard have both died.

Could someone swing by and check on Bootsy Collins, just to be safe?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:48 PM on April 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

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posted by little onion at 12:48 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by Lyme Drop at 12:49 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by blurker at 12:50 PM on April 6, 2016

Could someone swing by and check on Bootsy Collins, just to be safe?

Bernie Worrell ain't doing so hot.
posted by entropicamericana at 12:50 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

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posted by threetwentytwo at 12:53 PM on April 6, 2016

No one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried

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posted by rocketman at 12:54 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

79 is a good run.
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posted by Bee'sWing at 12:55 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

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posted by Karmadillo at 12:56 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by dismas at 12:57 PM on April 6, 2016

I'm not even really sure I realized Merle was still alive, but it's sad to see him go. Some of his songs have politics that I'd rather not hear about ("Fightin' Side of Me" is worse for that than "Okie from Muskogee" for me), but "Mama Tried" alone is enough to make me ignore that.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 12:57 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by WidgetAlley at 12:58 PM on April 6, 2016

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Godspeed Merle
A great tribute to Merle from a long time ago.
Big Brother and The Holding Co. -- I'll Change Your Flat Tire, Merle (1970)
posted by dougzilla at 12:58 PM on April 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

Today is his birthday.

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posted by maggieb at 12:58 PM on April 6, 2016

♪
posted by Gelatin at 12:58 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:59 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by saulgoodman at 1:00 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by tommasz at 1:01 PM on April 6, 2016

Merle Haggard - My Life's Been Grand
posted by y2karl at 1:05 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

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posted by Thorzdad at 1:06 PM on April 6, 2016

Oh man, what an amazing musician. Sorry to see him go. He was one of the very best.
posted by teponaztli at 1:07 PM on April 6, 2016

Do Johnny for me.
posted by jamaal at 1:07 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

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posted by Faint of Butt at 1:07 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by downtohisturtles at 1:08 PM on April 6, 2016

Bulgaroktonos: read the AV interview linked in the post. Although they made him notorious, those songs were not his politics nor what made him important in country music, hence the quote.
posted by y2karl at 1:09 PM on April 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

My Dad introduced me to Merle, he was a lifelong fan. He'll be sad about this. He's 75 and watching his friends and heroes go one by one and 79 doesn't seem so old to me anymore. I think I'll visit him tomorrow and give him a big hug. Bye Merle.

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posted by billiebee at 1:12 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Bulgaroktonos: read the AV interview linked in the post. Those songs were not his politics, hence the quote.

I read the quote more as "my politics changed," but point taken, either way I feel like those songs are how he's remembered by a lot of people (by people I grew up around who were largely favorable to the songs), and so I dislike them.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 1:15 PM on April 6, 2016

79 isn't as old as it used to be.

Goodbye little darlin' I’m leaving
I'm leaving this cold world behind
So promise me that you will always
Be nobody's darlin' but mine.
posted by mule98J at 1:18 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

"It's All Going to Pot" with Willie Nelson, one year ago.

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posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 1:22 PM on April 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

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posted by ZeusHumms at 1:23 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by trip and a half at 1:29 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by Rob Rockets at 1:29 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by evilDoug at 1:35 PM on April 6, 2016

Mama Tried
posted by bukvich at 1:36 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by pt68 at 1:36 PM on April 6, 2016

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Booooooo, 2016, booooooo.
posted by Kitteh at 1:40 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Bernie Worrell ain't doing so hot.

I'd seen it reported earlier this year that he had metastatic liver cancer and was not receiving chemo, only alternative something-or-other. I don't know if he changed his mind or if he doesn't even have the money for the naturopath but I think the chance that his number is up in 2016 is pretty high indeed :(
posted by atoxyl at 1:40 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by valkane at 1:42 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by colie at 1:43 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by Cash4Lead at 1:46 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by key_of_z at 1:49 PM on April 6, 2016

About The Fighting Side of Me...
posted by y2karl at 1:56 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

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posted by maggiemaggie at 1:58 PM on April 6, 2016

Ah, the 70s...
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:05 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

My personal favorite, Kern River. RIP.
posted by Grumpy old geek at 2:11 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by dlugoczaj at 2:22 PM on April 6, 2016

"Mama Tried"

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posted by bjgeiger at 2:23 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by drnick at 2:32 PM on April 6, 2016

For a few more songs, go to If I Could Only Fly
posted by y2karl at 2:33 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

TEN TUNES
posted by Postroad at 2:36 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh man, my poor dad. He's not much of one for bric-a-brac and tchotchkes, but he still has his Merle Haggard & the Strangers 197X Tour belt buckle.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 2:50 PM on April 6, 2016 [5 favorites]

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posted by genehack at 2:50 PM on April 6, 2016

I love Rainbow Stew, it reminds me of "Big Rock Candy Mountain."
posted by drezdn at 2:54 PM on April 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

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posted by drezdn at 2:54 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by lord_wolf at 3:01 PM on April 6, 2016

Damn. The Fugitive is one of my favorites.
posted by lost_cause at 3:26 PM on April 6, 2016

I always liked Colorado the best, and I haven't even lived there.

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posted by likeatoaster at 3:28 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Dammit. Time for Misery and Gin. RIP Merle. Thanks for all the music.
posted by Beti at 3:29 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by jadepearl at 3:31 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas at 3:33 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by Bob Regular at 3:56 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by spinifex23 at 4:03 PM on April 6, 2016

"I was lonelier than Kunta Kinte at a Merle Haggard concert" - _A Lap Dance is So Much Better when the Stripper is Crying_, The Blood Hound Gang.
posted by SeanMac at 4:08 PM on April 6, 2016

2006 Lake Chastain in the ATL. Merle and his boys were the opening act for Dylan. Never been well off enough to have the Lake Chastain experience, but it's my birthday and my Brother From Another Mother has hooked and crooked his way into some sweet tickets for me and my then-girlfriend Janie. It's mid-May, I'm in my early Thirties, and I'm back in the fecund South after three years living out West in brush-fire scrublands. The wisteria and honeysuckle tangled in the sky-high loblollies over Atlanta are looking for love in the cosmos... My grandfather had been a giant of a man. His death a few months back has left me shaken and lonely. Merle takes the stage just before dusk, looming large, and I sense a species of euphoric nostalgia for the present moment. He blazes through a phenomenal set as the sun drops behind the foothills and skyscrapers. A satellite tracks overhead. Janie & I hold hands and afterward hit the Majestic for pie slices and proletariat onion rings. A cherry Coke means it's all okay & there's enough magic to go around. I don't know it of course, but year from now I'll be married & sleep-deprived (as within the year I'll also have an infant daughter). Another year later, friends lost to the Void, friends gained...RIP, Big Man. May you rest in infinity's infinite heart.
posted by Bob Regular at 4:23 PM on April 6, 2016 [12 favorites]

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Merle was the first country music artist to defend Dixie Chicks in 2003. Mama tried.
posted by nofundy at 4:23 PM on April 6, 2016 [8 favorites]

Irma Jackson
posted by Bob Regular at 4:30 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, so so sad. The voice of an angel, right up to the end. One of my most favorite moments: Merle performing "Footlights" solo acoustic, sitting on George Jones's (TV show) couch.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:51 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

TIL that The A.V. Club is 23 frigging years old. Merle Haggard was a musical genius and I am very pleased that the guys at Epitaph had the sense to sign him for a couple of albums and bring him back to people's attention.
posted by 256 at 5:04 PM on April 6, 2016

Dammit.

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posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:06 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by motty at 5:11 PM on April 6, 2016

🔘
posted by clavdivs at 5:18 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by annieb at 5:19 PM on April 6, 2016

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Favorite song that hasn't been mentioned yet: "Sam Hill." Hasn't dated well topically, but man that's some country fun right there. Second favorite (and much more timeless) is "If We Make It Through December." You can just feel the desperation in his vocal.
posted by saintjoe at 5:20 PM on April 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

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posted by Lynsey at 5:44 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by kinnakeet at 6:02 PM on April 6, 2016

You cain go home now, Merle ... all ain't forgiven, but ya tried.
posted by Twang at 6:04 PM on April 6, 2016

Merle Haggard -Tell Me Something Bad About Tulsa
posted by y2karl at 6:09 PM on April 6, 2016

Hobo Bill's Last Ride.
posted by cleroy at 6:17 PM on April 6, 2016

We seriously considered renaming our kid Merle after hearing this news ... I can't believe I never saw Haggard live.
posted by yarly at 6:22 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

::sigh::

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posted by droplet at 6:27 PM on April 6, 2016

The only country 45 my Dad ever bought was Okie from Muskogee because he was… well, an okie. He almost loved playing it more than his beloved classical music.

. RIP Merle
posted by jabo at 6:27 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by lester at 6:40 PM on April 6, 2016

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(goddammit.)
posted by notsnot at 6:50 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by sfts2 at 6:57 PM on April 6, 2016

I can't believe I never saw Haggard live.

He played in my area a few times over the last several years. I thought about trying to see him but in the end, I decided that I'd probably just be sad to see him so elderly. I prefer to remember him in his 70s country star glory or wearing one of his very fine hats.

Damn you, 2016. Are the good times really over for good?
posted by Beti at 7:00 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by tspae at 7:02 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by riverlife at 7:14 PM on April 6, 2016

He played in my area a few times over the last several years. I thought about trying to see him but in the end, I decided that I'd probably just be sad to see him so elderly.

I saw him last year, and it was very sad. Having Willie there for the second half of the show seemed to help some, though.

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posted by bradf at 7:47 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

The Knitters (side project for X) did a cover of Haggard's Silver Wings that's well worth checking out.
posted by Beholder at 8:04 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I saw Merle open for Dylan on the same tour as Bob Regular. It was in Oakland in 2005. My college roommate and I were both there mostly for Dylan, but I had a soft spot for Hag.

He blew Dylan out of the water. Phenomenal set. He introduced the Strangers as "the oldest beer joint band in the world," and they played every measure like people who had spent decades memorizing one another's subtlest musical instinct. Dylan's set seemed generic and unfocused by comparison.

Haggard lent danger and immediacy to Buck's gleaming, propulsive Bakersfield Sound. He was absolutely essential and I still can't believe he's gone.
posted by DeWalt_Russ at 9:34 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Glad some of y'all managed to catch the Hag live. My dad played plenty of country music on the AM radio in the pickup truck, driving 'round Northwestern Ontario in the 80s.

I'm partial to his cover of Little Ole Wine Drinker Me along with If We Make It Through December and Misery & Gin.

RIP.
posted by myopicman at 9:41 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass remembrance.
posted by gingerbeer at 10:19 PM on April 6, 2016

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posted by AFII at 11:40 PM on April 6, 2016

Oh damn. This bums me out, I always loved Merle, one of the old timey country greats. Thanks for the post y2karl.
posted by madamjujujive at 3:46 AM on April 7, 2016

Damn you, 2016. Are the good times really over for good?

The baby boom peaked in 1957. We're coming up on six decades. Now add some years for the (presumably older) folks we looked up to.

The next decade is going to be brutal.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:24 AM on April 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

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as soon as december rolls around, i start putting If We Make It Through December into heavy rotation. it's hard to find a more perfect and perfectly depressing holiday season song.

also, Kaleb Horton has a really good piece up at mtv news right now about merle and growing up in bakersfield
posted by burgerrr at 9:17 AM on April 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

That Kaleb Horton article is really good.
posted by bongo_x at 9:42 AM on April 7, 2016

with whom they had a son, Marty Haggard

My dad has always listened to country music (although he didn't care much for the outlaws) so I've listened to country music off and on my whole life. I knew about Ben Haggard but somehow missed Marty. Thanks for introducing me to him, spitbull. Wow, his voice (and face and hair :-) - uncanny resemblance to his old man. I'm glad Merle passed along some of his talent.
posted by Beti at 9:57 AM on April 7, 2016

So last night, I chickened out and decided not to sing"Mama Tried" at the first bar with karaoke we closed down even though I knew it was in the book. At the second late night bar, I didn't even consider it because the book wasn't as deep and the vibe was even less right. Imagine my disappointment when the KJ played "Mama Tried" after the last song was sung. As I expressed my disappointment, my boisterous friend convinced him to let me do it anyway, but when I got on stage, he actually played "Okie From Muskogee", and since the show must go on, I sang it.

Some might not think that gay-as-hell me singing dismissively about San Francisco hippies at 3:30 am wearing my "Ted Cruz Was the Zodiac Killer" t-shirt would be a fitting tribute to a recently departed musical legend, but trust me when I say it was one of the most sincere things I've ever done.

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posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:53 AM on April 7, 2016 [6 favorites]

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posted by Ironmouth at 1:11 PM on April 7, 2016

Kaleb Horton on Merle Haggard's death:

I'm from East Bakersfield, right at the end of Highway 58 before it takes you to the desert. My grandma cleaned houses until her body wouldn’t let her anymore. My grandpa is a retired truck driver and smokes a pack a day. It used to be Camel Straights but they got to be too expensive so now he buys Seneca, king size, unfiltered, at a reservation in Porterville. And I’ve never seen him happier than when he said he saw Merle Haggard’s steel guitarist there.

I was born into country music. I didn’t have a say in the matter. I was given my grandpa’s surplus Merle Haggard LPs as birthday presents before I even knew what rock and roll was. I knew the words to “Mama Tried” a solid decade before I heard of Elvis. When I look back on my childhood, my fondest memories are of sitting in my grandpa’s tiny yellowing living room in a cloud of smoke listening to Merle Haggard records while he drank coffee and said almost nothing. Merle Haggard wasn’t the beginning and the end of country music — he was the beginning and the end of music. Period.

I knew he’d been sick this last few months. But he had been sick before. It was expected. He treated his body like hell. But he always survived the mythological country music vices. The straight-out-of-the-bottle whiskey guzzling, the mountains of cigarettes, the shoeboxes full of cocaine. He had lung cancer and beat it. He was unkillable.

posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:19 PM on April 7, 2016 [4 favorites]

I apologize if someone has linked it already, I looked through the thread but didn't find it, but the cover of today's Tennessean is not to be missed if you were a fan.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:26 PM on April 7, 2016 [6 favorites]

aw, that's lovely jacquilynne. and

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dammit.
posted by hap_hazard at 7:04 PM on April 7, 2016

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posted by Mitheral at 9:08 PM on April 7, 2016

See also

...Merle has done little over the years to disavow his pinched-son-of-the-Dust-Bowl image. Lillian Rea, Merle’s sister, has a somewhat different recollection of things. She is a trim, gracious woman who lives in a small town on California’s central coast. Her version of Merle’s childhood is affectionate and matter-of-fact (she calls him her ''ornery, undisciplined little brother'') and is only occasionally punctuated by a burst of frustration, disappointment, or anger.

''Merle was born in 1937,'' she told me. ''I was sixteen, and Lowell, my other brother, was fourteen. My parents, James and Flossie Haggard, were married in 1919 in Oklahoma, and the moved to Illinois in 1926. My father was a foreman for a steel company there. My mother became ill, and the doctors recommended a warmer, drier climate, so in 1929 we moved to California. That was in August, and the climate near Bakersfield was so hot we returned to Oklahoma two months later -- eastern Oklahoma, near Checotah, and about twenty-five miles south of Muskogee -- to farm, and my mother’s health improved radically. In fact, she lived to a ripe old age, and died in 1984. The farm did well, and we were hardly affected by the Dust Bowl business. In 1934, the year before we moved back to California, my father bought a brand-new Ford, with and opera window. He paid cash for it. That doesn’t sound too much like ‘The Grapes of Wrath,’ does it? Oh, I get sick and tired of that stuff!''

In 1935, a fire, thought to be the work of an arsonist, burned the family’s barn to the ground, destroying the new Ford, a hay crop, and most of the farm’s equipment. James Haggard ran a service station for a few months and got the family back on its feet, but after he underwent an appendectomy he decided to try the next rebound in California. The Haggards settled in Oildale, just outside Bakersfield, not far from Flossie’s sister. James soon found work—first as the manager of a dairy, then as a carpenter for the Santa Fe Railway. Merle-inspired versions of those early days in California have Flossie milking cows to help feed the family. ''Definitely not true,'' Lillian said. ''Then you get the born-in-a-boxcar business. A woman in Oildale had the idea of converting a boxcar into a house, and she asked Dad if he thought it was possible. He thought it was such a good idea that he built it and then bought it for us to live in until we could build a bigger house. What it was was a comfortable early-style mobile home.'' The boxcar house still stands, behind the house that the family eventually built, in a clean, quiet, working-class neighborhood dominated by pickup trucks and children’s bicycles parked in front of small, well-tended lawns.

Ornery

...He leaves behind a considerable discography -- dozens of albums, which collectively contain thirty-eight number-one country singles -- but, as with most of the great American singers, there is a sense that no one studio recording ever quite captured all of him. The way he moved, or how he got over.

Still, if you watch enough footage of Haggard performing live, you’ll start to notice him doing something sort of curious: he hovers around the microphone, his eyes fixed on some invisible point in the middle distance, narrowed and brutally focussed. It’s the kind of visage people adopt when they’re trying to tell you something important: that they love you, or that they think you’re making some kind of mistake. ''His gaze, the way he engages the mic, the timing and weird dips and glide of his voice,'' is how my friend Christopher began to describe the scene in an e-mail a couple hours after we’d all learned Haggard had died. ''He sings around a song, sort of into it and out of it, like a prospector knowing there’s even more to discover. He does all of this with the audience as a critical part of the process, like they are part of that song-glob he’s navigating. It’s where you really see what he’s about.''

It’s tough, now, to know that those videos are all the Merle Haggard we’ve got left on Earth. There is a generosity to his movement onstage that reminds me, in a way, of ''If We Make It Through December,'' a song as emotionally generous as any I can think of. Haggard was singing, always, to the person for whom dread wasn’t an abstract concept, but a way of being: the broken-hearted, the broken-down. He scanned the crowd, and found him, and helped him.

Postscript: Merle Haggard, 1937--2016

Remembering Merle Haggard -- and his 1973 love letter to New Orleans and Dixieland jazz

Merle Haggard and the Strangers - I Ain't Got Nobody
posted by y2karl at 8:38 AM on April 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

Merle Haggard - A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today

Merle Haggard - It's All In The Game

Merle Haggard - Blues Stay Away From Me

Merle Haggard - Big Butter and Egg Man

Merle Haggard - Pennies From Heaven

Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson - Don't Think Twice, It's Alright
posted by y2karl at 1:14 PM on April 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh, shoot, entropicamericana, I forgot you already posted A Working Man... and missed that you linked to Ornery, too -- D'oh!
posted by y2karl at 1:26 PM on April 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

January 1, 1958 - Inmate Merle Haggard hears Johnny Cash play San Quentin State Prison

See also ‘Merle Haggard’s too-good-to-be-true story about Johnny Cash.’ Hard to believe the kind of people who would write angry letters protesting an ex-con performing on TV.
posted by LeLiLo at 11:15 AM on April 12, 2016

PBS is showing an early Austin City Limits for the next few weeks.
posted by kristi at 6:49 PM on April 26, 2016 [2 favorites]