Merle haggard biography band
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Merle Haggard Biography
Many of Haggard’s songs were drawn from his own hardscrabble life. He was born during the Great Depression near Bakersfield, California, where his family had been living for three years, having fled Oklahoma after a fire destroyed their farm.
Merle haggard biography band
They were thought of as “Okies.” Following his father’s death when Merle was nine, his mother encouraged his interest in music, hoping it would keep him out of trouble. It didn’t. He was constantly arrested for truancy and other offenses – and just as constantly escaping from juvenile detention centers.
Eventually, when he was 20 years old, his crimes landed him in San Quentin for two and a half years.
After his parole, Haggard returned to Bakersfield and joined Buck Owens’s band, performing in the local honky tonks every night, and got a day job digging ditches.
His own solo career took off when he turned to themes reflecting his own experiences: “Sing Me Back Home,” drawn from his time in prison, “Mama Tried,” about