Happy Birthday Merle!

I was reminded via Alicia that today is Merle Haggard's 67th birthday. If you have been following the Texas and California country thread at Summamamas, you know that I am a huge Merle Haggard fan. Oddly enough, I have never met him, even though Melanie's family knows him, and he has several connections to the Arhoolie world. I know from everyone I know who knows him (and from all that I have read about him) that he is often a prickly character. He managed to anger a lot of fans last year when he was hired by San Francisco Jazz to do a show of Bob Wills material and came and just did his own material, knowing full well that that is not what the SF Jazz folks paid top dollar to hear (why would they, when you can go to county fairs less than 100 miles away to hear him do his own classic tunes every summer?).

Anyway, seeing as how Bob Wills was notorious for missing gigs, showing up drunk or late, and being basically scornful of his audience, I suppose that this was probably a fitting tribute to Wills. The strange thing is that only a few days before Haggard was really talking up Wills while being interviewed on the radio, telling about how he has Bob Wills' fiddle, etc. Go figure. He left a lot of folks perplexed, but that is what Haggard often does.

What there can be no doubt about, though, is his genius as a songwriter and performer. "Mama Tried" will be heard 100 years from now. My first exposure to this tune was not his own version, but the Grateful Dead's. It blew me away and made me go out and get Haggard's, which was even better (and the Dead did a good job on it).

Once in awhile I have to drive through the southern Central Valley. If time allows, I make a detour to Bakersfield just to soak up the atmosphere (I guess you call that atmosphere - it is pretty grim, even today). I also think of Haggard whenever I pass San Quentin, where Haggard was incarcerated when Johnny Cash performed there.

So, Happy Birthday Merle Haggard!