country singer Merle Haggard dies at 79
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 4:00 pm
Country legend Merle Haggard, often called “the Poet of the Common Man,” whose music reflected his
hardscrabble roots and hard-living ways as well as a tenderness that made him a revered songwriter, has
died at his home near Redding, CA. He was 79. The Associated Press confirmed his death.
Haggard along with fellow superstar Buck Owens defined the West Coast sound of country music in the 1960s and ’70s.
Between 1965 and 1974 Haggard scored 11 Academy of Country Music honors as well as four top Country Music Assn.
honors.
He was also inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977 and was
a Kennedy Center Honors inductee in 2010.
Sail on Merle
hardscrabble roots and hard-living ways as well as a tenderness that made him a revered songwriter, has
died at his home near Redding, CA. He was 79. The Associated Press confirmed his death.
Haggard along with fellow superstar Buck Owens defined the West Coast sound of country music in the 1960s and ’70s.
Between 1965 and 1974 Haggard scored 11 Academy of Country Music honors as well as four top Country Music Assn.
honors.
He was also inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977 and was
a Kennedy Center Honors inductee in 2010.
Sail on Merle