Davey Smith leads Merle Haggard tribute.

When Merle Haggard died on April 6, many of his fans struggled with a befitting way to honor his passing.

Many wrote impassioned social-media posts praising the self-described Okie from Muskogee or bought his records and played them on repeat. Radio stations embarked on marathon broadcasts drawing from the seemingly bottomless well of hits Haggard penned in a career spanning more than 50 years.

Local country singer/ songwriter Davey Smith is a lifelong fan of the Poet of the Common Man. When his wife informed him of the singer’s death at age 79, Smith immediately picked up the phone and called Revelry Room manager Mike Dougher to suggest putting together a tribute concert.

“I talked to a couple of buddies and then sent Mike a text saying, ‘ Hey, look. This is something I want to do. I think it could be big.’”

Smith says Haggard has been part of his life practically since it started. “Workin’ Man Blues,” one of the singer’s earliest hits, was the first song Smith learned the words to. In middle school, he played video games to the soundtrack of Haggard’s 1980 record, “Back to the Barrooms.”

“That was back in ‘ 95 or ‘96, so Merle Haggard wasn’t exactly the cool thing to listen to,” Smith laughs. “I had my Ace of Bass record there for when my friends came over to play, but I remember wearing that Merle record out. … That’s when I first bonded and made that connection and fell in love with the music.”

As an adult, Smith has become one of the pillars of Chattanooga’s country music scene. He and his band, The Pearl Snap Preachers, performed at last year’s Riverbend Festival the same day that Haggard headlined.

Haggard’s songs have frequently found their way into Smith’s sets, so when the singer died, Smith says, a concert seemed the only fitting send-off.

After nearly two months of preparation, during which he “narrowed down” an initial crop of songs to a mere 45, Smith and his band will perform three hours of music representing the entire gamut of Haggard’s career, from must-play hits such as “Mama Tried” and “The Bottle Let Me Down” to catalog deep cuts such as “C.C. Waterback” and “Rainbow Stew.”

Beyond satisfying the die-hard fans such as himself, Smith says the evening will offer an opportunity to honor a musician who pushed boundaries and inspired generations of musicians following in his wake.

“We want to do it justice and see everyone come together to pay their respects,” he says. “I feel like everyone has a Merle Haggard song that’s ‘their song.’ … Hopefully, you’ll come out and listen to three hours of Merle Haggard music and have that connection with one — or hopefully several — songs and pay tribute to one of the best country musicians of all time, in my opinion.”

“WE’RE STILL REHEARSING BECAUSE WE WANT TO DO THIS THE RIGHT WAY. IT’S BEEN A LABOR OF LOVE.”

— DAVEY SMITH, ON PREPARING FOR HIS MERLE HAGGARD TRIBUTE

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS Merle Haggard