Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard is the real deal.
He's the Danny Trejo of country music. Other people write songs about being broke and doing time, but Haggard actually spent his formative years either in prison or riding the rails. He spent the 70s living on a houseboat, which is possibly the most awesome thing in the universe. For me, the big appeal of his music is that Haggard is the musician who speaks for the outcast. He writes songs from the point of view of drifters, drunks, and convicts, and is able to elicit tremendous sympathy for people trying to stand up when the world's grinding him down. Personal favorites include "Workin' Man's Blues", "I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am", "Sing Me Back Home", "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive", and the legendary awtempo and energetic.
Haggard was recording during the sixties, at the height of the Vietnam conflict, and he's best known for the antihaggard,13705/'>AV Club, but he definitely expressed the spirit of an age and both songs are actually really good.
Mama Tried
Like most country legends, Merle Haggard has tons of number one singles that have been collected into greatest hits editions. It's probably the best way to get into his work. He's still recording and releasing stuff to this day, having just released I Am What I Am. It's a powerful album, and like Johnny Cash's American Recordings, it's a somber, reflective meditation on his life and career. He's older, wiser, but he keeps true to who he's always been. Get into him now before someone makes a biopic about him and every schmuck poser in the quad starts going on about how he was always cool.
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