courtesy of by Jeremy Roberts Flickr (cc)
Country music legend Merle Haggard passed away today on his 79th birthday. According to Haggard’s manager, Frank Mull, the country music icon and 1994 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee succumbed to pneumonia.
America has lost one of its greatest song poets.
Singer, songwriter, guitarist, fiddler, bandleader and music legend Merle Haggard died today on his 79th birthday.
One of the most influential and revered artists in music, Haggard was a permanent fixture on the country charts for three decades. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Kennedy Center honoree.
Perhaps no other singer-songwriter in contemporary country music has assembled as large a body of practically unblemished work. He stands almost alone in terms of artistic consistency, musical integrity, purpose and vision.
His songwriting achievements include such classics as “Mama Tried,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “Okie From Muskogee,” “Hungry Eyes,” “Workin’ Man Blues,” “If We Make It Through December,” “Big City” and “Today I Started Loving You Again,” among many, many others. His recorded legacy is vast and varied. He venerated blues, swing, pop, folk, gospel, honky-tonk, rockabilly and several other roots genres. Haggard respected country tradition and recorded tributes to Jimmie Rodgers (1969), Bob Wills (1970) and Elvis Presley (1977). He recorded with The Texas Playboys as well as with Mother Maybelle and The Carter Sisters, George Jones, Willie Nelson and Ernest Tubb….
RIP Merle Haggard. God bless you and thank you for your contribution.
Sympathies, peace and blessings to the family, friends and loved ones of Merle Haggard.
I remember watching my parents dance to his music.
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I miss country. And I miss R&B. The greats of both genre’s are almost all gone now.
What pretends to be music these days is quite unfulfilling, except for the occasional ballad by a person with a real voice and not just a screamer. RIP Merle, , And George, ,and Marvin, , and Ben E. ………..
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I agree Bob. We grew up on country, R&B and soul. Thankfully, I have a few old CDs in the closet put up dating back prior to all of this electronic digital crap that they have thrown in now and call music. I love the sound of Miles Davis sax, Donald Byrd’s clarinet, a spanish guitar, bass drum, trombone, banjo,etc. and the voice of a songbird. their real voice. The stage extravaganza always meant nothing to me. A good performer does not to employ distractions.
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