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Merle Haggard, a fan of Lefty Frizzell
who grew up both an old-fashioned rambler and a modern juvenile delinquent
(thus destined to bridge country music and rock music),
adopted a similar two-guitar sound.
From Wynn Stewart's Sing Me A Sad Song (1965) to
Liz Anderson's existential dirges Strangers (1965) and
I'm A Lonesome Fugitive (1966),
from his first album of (mostly) original compositions,
Swinging Doors (1966), containing The Bottle Let Me Down,
Branded Man (1967), containing Branded Man and I Threw Away the Rose,
from the transitional hits Sing Me Back Home (1967)
and Today I Started Loving You Again (1968)
to the mature social frescoes of
Mama Tried (1968),
The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde (1968)
and
Hungry Eyes (1969),
from the anti-hippie anthem Okie From Muskogee (1969)
to
The Fightin' Side of Me (1970),
from the workers' lament of If We Make It Through December (1974),
to the concept album Someday We'll Look Back (1971),
Haggard,
a champion of the working class,
paid tribute to his own depressing autobiography and to the even more
depressing condition of the white working class.
A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (1970) was
dedicated to Bob Wills.
Other hit songs were:
Irma Jackson (1972),
Grandma Harp (1972),
I Wonder If They Think of Me (1973),
Movin' On (1975),
Always Wanting You (1975),
The Roots of My Raising (1975).
Between 1973 and 1976 he scored nine consecutive number-one country hits.
Between 1981 and 1985, Haggard scored nine more number-one country hits,
notably
My Favorite Memory (1981),
Someday We'll Look Back (1984)
Going Where the Lonely Go (1982),
Yesterdays' Wine (1982), a duet with George Jones,
Pancho and Lefty (1983), a duet with Willie Nelson,
Natural High (1985),
Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Star (1988).
Haggard continued releasing evocative albums, all the way to
If I Could Only Fly (2000).
Haggard died in 2016.
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