HOLLYWOOD, CA (Capitol Nashville/EMI) - Capitol Nashville/EMI
Music Catalog Marketing is proud to announce "The Year of Hag," with several catalog titles planned for release in 2006 and 2007 to salute one of country music's true outlaws: the one and only "Okie From Muskogee," Merle Haggard. The in-depth retrospective launches on February 21 with the release of ten original albums Haggard recorded for Capitol between 1965 and 1971, digitally remastered and paired on five CDs with a bevy of rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks. The new single-disc packages present the cream of Haggard's crop of 38 Capitol LPs, including four studio albums never before available on CD and newly-written package essays. Capitol Nashville/EMI's Haggard campaign will roll out through 2006 and into 2007, with a new hits collection, "Hag: As Country As It Gets - Greatest Hits" scheduled for
September 2006 and holiday, spiritual and songwriter-themed packages also planned for release.
Paired chronologically, four of the ten original albums represented in the launch of Capitol Nashville/EMI's Haggard retrospective have never before been available on CD. "Hag," "Someday We'll Look Back," "Pride In What I Am," and "The Legend Of Bonnie & Clyde" all make their disc debut, coupled with "Strangers, Swinging Doors and the Bottle Let Me Down," "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive," "Branded Man," "Mama Tried," and "Sing Me Back Home." The CD packages feature new liner notes penned by music scribes Chris Morris, Chet Flippo, Holly George-Warren, Joel Selvin and Geoffrey Himes and newly-added rare and previously unreleased songs, totaling 21 added bonus tracks in all. The paired titles will be sold digitally, as well, available for purchase on February 21 from all of the major DSPs.
Merle Haggard is not only a part of Capitol's rich history, he also plays a vital role in its present. He continues to reap accolades for new albums and performances, including a run of 2005 tour dates with Bob Dylan and his current Capitol Nashville album, "Chicago Wind." The new CD has won critical praise from all corners of the media, with "People" declaring in its 4-star review, "Haggard is as close to Nashville royalty as it gets," while another recent recording has earned Haggard a Grammy nomination (Best Country Collaboration With Vocal for "Politically Uncorrect" with Gretchen Wilson). Meanwhile, many of Haggard's bristly anthems have proven to be timeless torches for a new generation of outlaws. Toby Keith has embraced Hag's "Fightin' Side Of Me" as a modern-day war cry, often performing the fiery song in concert.
In addition to 40 No 1 Country hits, Merle Haggard has charted scores of Top 10 singles. He's won just about every music award imaginable, both as a performer and as a songwriter, and in 1994 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, but Haggard's impact on modern music reaches well beyond the genre line.
Producer Don Was, who has worked with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Bonnie Raitt, told "Newsweek" in 1996, "He'll tell you he's a country singer, but to me the essence of rock and roll is a cry for freedom and rebellion. And I don't know anyone who embodies it better. Every aspect of his life is a refusal to submit."
Merle Ronald Haggard was born in 1937 outside Bakersfield, California. His parents had moved the family there after their farm in Oklahoma burned down, and his father found work as a carpenter for the Santa Fe Railroad. The family lived in an old boxcar that they converted into a home. Though struggling to make a meager living, they had a sturdy shelter and food was always on the table. Haggard's father died of a stroke when Merle was nine years old, a devastating event for the young boy. With his world turned upside down, Haggard turned rebellious. He hopped a freight train when he was just ten, making it to Fresno before being picked up by the authorities. For the next few years, he would find himself in reform schools, sometimes making an escape, only to get thrown back in again.
The angel on Haggard's shoulder during these troubled times was his love and talent for music. Starting out as a fan of Bob Wills, Haggard eventually found his musical idol in Lefty Frizzell, and worked up a pretty impressive copy his singing style. "For three or four years I didn't sing anything but Lefty Frizzell songs," Merle told "Music City News." "And then, because Lefty was a fan of Jimmie Rodgers, I learned to imitate him too." Haggard got the chance to see Lefty perform in person when he was 14. "He was dressed in white - heroes usually are," Merle said.
Haggard was already starting to make small amounts of money here and there by playing music, but it wasn't enough to keep him out of trouble. In and out of jail throughout his teen years for small crimes, he found himself doing serious time in San Quentin at the age of 20. "Going to prison has one of a few effects," he told "Salon" in 2004. "It can make you worse, or it can make you understand and appreciate freedom. I learned to appreciate freedom when I didn't have any."
Haggard was released from prison in 1960. After making an impression working in local clubs, he joined Las Vegas star Wynn Stewart's band in 1962 as a bassist. When he got a chance to record his own single, Haggard chose the Stewart composition, "Sing A Sad Song." It came out on the small Tally Records label in 1964, and made it into the Top 20. His follow up singles didn't do quite as well, until "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers" went into the Top 10 and brought him to the attention of Capitol Records. He proved himself a hitmaker with three Top 10 singles in 1967, including his first No 1, "I'm A Lonesome Fugitive."
Johnny Cash encouraged him to address his problems directly in verse. "I was bull-headed about my career. I didn't want to talk about being in prison," Haggard recalls, "but Cash said I should talk about it. That way the tabloids wouldn't be able to. I said I didn't want to do that and he said, 'It's just owning up to it.'" When Cash introduced him on his variety show, he said, "Here's a man who writes about his own life and has had a life to write about."
The true grit of Merle Haggard is expressed in many of the hits he's recorded, from "Sing Me Back Home," another No 1 in 1967, to "Mama Tried," which topped the chart in 1968, an apology of sorts to Haggard's religious and hardworking mother. Hag's tender side is further revealed in "I Started Loving You Again" and "You Still Have a Place In My Heart" from 1968's "The Legend Of Bonnie & Clyde," and "I Just Want To Look At You One More Time" from 1969's "Pride In What I Am."
With the Vietnam War serving as a lightning rod for opposing views, the United States was politically divided. "Working Man Blues," issued in 1969, delivered a clear message of solidarity to the blue-collar country audience. That sociological stance was solidified with Haggard's most popular song, "Okie From Muskogee." He says the song started as a joke, but it also drew a clear line between "us" and "them." Haggard spoke for the Americans who didn't smoke marijuana, didn't burn their draft cards, didn't grow their hair long and shaggy and were "proud to wave Old Glory down at the courthouse." In the ensuing years, Richard Nixon invited him to sing at the White House, Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California, gave him an unconditional pardon for his past criminal offenses, and George Wallace asked him for an endorsement - which Haggard turned down.
