Merle Haggard appears in concert on Friday, May 1, 2015 at TJ’s Corral, the Carson Valley Inn’s Outdoor Concert and Event Center. The doors open at 7:15 p.m. and the concert starts at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $59 and are available at www.carsonvalleyinn.com.
The word “legend” usually makes an appearance at some point when discussing Merle Haggard. It’s an acknowledgement of his artistry and his standing as “the poet of the common man.”
It’s a tribute to his incredible commercial success and to the lasting mark he has made, not just on country music, but on American music as a whole. Studying, analyzing and observing the details of life around him, Haggard relays what he sees, hears and feels through his songs. The lyrics are deceptively simple, the music exceptionally listenable.
In addition to 40 #1 hits, Merle Haggard charted scores of Top Ten songs. He has won just about every music award imaginable, both as a performer and as a songwriter, and in 1994 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. His body of work easily places him beside Hank Williams as one of the most influential artists in country music.
Among his many hits are Mama Tried, Okie From Muskogee, If We Make It Through December, Working Man Blues, Big City, I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink, Sing Me Back Home, Daddy Frank, My Favorite Memory, Branded Man, That’s The Way Love Goes, and dozens more. Haggard also collaborated with other noted artists as in his Pancho and Lefty duet with Willie Nelson and Yesterday’s Wine with George Jones.
Haggard’s real gift is that anyone who hears his songs recognizes the truth in them. When a Merle Haggard song plays, it can make an innocent-as-apple-pie grandma understand the stark loneliness and self-loathing of a prisoner on death row; a rich kid who never wanted for any material possession get a feel for the pain of wondering where the next meal will come from; a tee-totaling pillar of the community sympathize with the poor heartbroken guy downing shots at the local bar.
SOURCE: Carson Valley Inn.
