Countryobit: Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard has died at the age of 79. There are, of course, any number of obituaries online already.

Perhaps the best story about Haggard is that his musical career had its inspiration in one of Johnny Cash's prisons gigs. It's a great story because it shows what treating prisoners like people can do, but it's also great because that whole 'here is a man playing guitar, I can do that too' storyline in effect makes Haggard a punk hero as well as a country one.

I first came across Merle Haggard thanks to the NME - younger readers might need to be told there used to be a music magazine with that name. Back in 1988, the paper produced an album of Vietnam related pop, rock and soul called Feels Like I'm Fixin To Die. It's pretty good, and on it was this:

He came to regard the song as a bit of an albatross:

Sometimes I wish I hadn’t written Okie. Not that I’m ashamed of it. I’m not sure but what bothers me most is the people that identify with it. There is the extremity out there. I don’t know. It made people forget that I might be a much more musical artist than they give me credit for. I was indelibly stamped with this political image—this political, musical spokesman, or whatever.

And although it's a great song, based on the lyrics I might have not bothered digging much further into Haggard's back catalogue when I was 18. But this song made me give him a second look:

There's a moon across the border in the Louisiana sky
I smell the Pontchartrain,
I hear Silver Wings
Then, away Merle Haggard flies

If Nanci Griffith was giving him a verse in a song, equal billing with Loretta Lynn - well, he had to be worth a second look, right?

Bookmarks: Some other stuff to read on the web

Nanci Griffith is being blocked by George Bush, she tells IC Birmingham:

"I haven't been able to write anything for two years. I have been so angry with my president and the war in Iraq."

Despite her 'fan club' including the legendary Bob Dylan, Nanci is not tempted to pursue the protest song route when it comes to Iraq.

"For me, I have never been the kind of person to write in anger."

David Byrne goes to the Stasi Museum in Berlin:

Maybe the intent was NOT to hide this surveillance gear too well, the idea possibly being to make people aware they were being looked at and listened to. If you’re not aware you’re being observed then you won't live in fear, so what’s the point? Sometimes buildings here in the U.S. put up fake surveillance cameras in the hopes of discouraging perps. Of course, it wasn’t all just nutty surveillance stuff — people’s lives were ruined, destroyed, their careers came to a dead end at the least suspicion, there were prison terms and torture without stated reason (where have I heard that one before?) and information and culture was heavily censored. And the food wasn’t that great, either.

The Guardian meets with Pearl Spam out of Powder, as she publishes her memoirs:

One thing she is most definitely not concerned about is the reaction of her old friends to the book - which, I can assure you, is a surprisingly compulsive read. Celebrities, particularly the celebrities with whom Lowe was hanging around, tend to be very visible in their public lives but keep their private lives protectively closeted. And although Lowe carefully avoids naming individuals - other than listing at one point that her crowd included Kate Moss, Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Liam Gallagher, Jonny Lee Miller and Patsy Kensit - the book does convey just how central drugs were to her gang. "There was a general belief in our world that you couldn't have fun unless you were slightly out of it," she writes. There are anecdotes about group dinners at the Ivy, with Lowe dashing off mid-meal in someone's chauffeured car to go and buy cocaine for the group. "You're my best friend," one gushes when she returns.

Dosen does Griffith

We've just heard that Stephanie Dosen - nu-folk dream-queen - is going to be opening the forthcoming Nanci Griffith UK tour. Which, as pairings go, is right up there with chips and even more chips:

Thursday 12 July - GLASGOW - Old Fruit Market
Friday 13 - MANCHESTER – Apollo
Sunday 15 - BIRMINGHAM – Alexandra Theatre
Monday 16 - LIVERPOOL – Philharmonic
Tuesday 17 - LONDON – Hammersmith Apollo
Friday 27 - GATESHEAD – Sage