re: Merle Haggard

Merle and Jones are my two favorites, glad I saw them both live. I saw merle late in his career but he still sounded good. I saw jones years back at Alex Broussard’s around the time Jones lived in Carencro.


From one of my favorite Merle haggard songs, ramblin’ fever

… But I don't let no no woman, tie me down
And I never get too old to get around
I want to die along the highway and rot away
Like some old high-line pole
Rest this ramblin' fever in my soul

You serious? Yes it is a joke that Elvis is in but Cash helped save the genre ounce Hank Williams died leaving some huge shoes to fill.

He was a great ambassador for the genre and for a brief time was the first country artist to achieve mega fame in the late 60s, more popular than the Beatles and Elvis.

This spawned his show which indeed exposed unknown country artists to a broader audience and gave more exposure to other artists from different genres. This put Nashville on the map.

He may not be considered traditional country from a purists perspective. But then what is? He was heavily influenced by the Carter family and some of his music has a roots country sound to it.

I know the story about the stolen lyrics but he took a boring arse song and turned it into a classic.

quote:

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You serious? Yes it is a joke that Elvis is in but Cash helped save the genre ounce Hank Williams died leaving some huge shoes to fill. He was a great ambassador for the genre and for a brief time was the first country artist to achieve mega fame in the late 60s, more popular than the Beatles and Elvis. This spawned his show which indeed exposed unknown country artists to a broader audience and gave more exposure to other artists from different genres. This put Nashville on the map. He may not be considered traditional country from a purists perspective. But then what is? He was heavily influenced by the Carter family and some of his music has a roots country sound to it. I know the story about the stolen lyrics but he took a boring arse song and turned it into a classic.

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no doubt he was an ambassador for country music and he did great things for the industry and the genre (i dont know that i would give him credit for "putting Nashville on the map" though), but that still doesnt mean that the music he made was country. i dont think Cash or his band cumulatively had enough talent to play actual country music.