Even without being able to ask Merle Haggard myself, I would assume that nothing in his life ever felt quite like the day he was released from San Quentin prison. Through the thrills of becoming a ...

Merle Haggard is one of the most ubiquitous names in country music, thanks to classic cuts like “Okie from Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me”. His professional trajectory was remarkable. He ...

Cash had lost his voice the night before. Haggard was 20 and doing time.

Haggard, who died in 2016, spoke to Fresh Air in 1995 about his love of trains. When he became a star, he acquired his own observation car. Now that coach is part of the Virginia Scenic Railway. This ...

Looking back at at Lucky, her 2014 collection of Merle Haggard covers, Suzy Bogguss can't speak about Haggard's mark on her career without mentioning his influence on her as a country music fan. She ...

On performing at the music festival in Patchogue, he said, “It feels great. I’m glad there are country fans in the North East. I’m glad that every region in the United States has a good country music ...

A decade ago, Merle Haggard died on the same day he turned 79 after sharing a premonition that his final moments would coincide with his birthday. The country music singer fell ill with pneumonia in ...

Born in 1937, Merle Haggard—nicknamed "The Hag"—was a man made for country music. Growing up in California during the Great Depression had Haggard, who passed in 2016 at the age of 79, living in a ...