After 50 years, Merle Haggard’s moment in the sun arrives
Studios to stages, it’s tributes all around
Country Music Hall of Famer Merle Haggard will be the focus of two tributes next month — one an album of the singer’s hits recorded by current country stars, the other from the Academy of Country Music.
Luke Bryan, Garth Brooks, Jason Aldean and Toby Keith are among the artists lending their voices to Working Man’s Poet: A Tribute to Merle Haggard, out April 1 on Broken Bow Records. During the 49th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on April 6 — Haggard’s 77th birthday — he’ll be the recipient of a multiartist tribute segment and receive the ACM’s Crystal Milestone award, honoring his 50th anniversary in country music.
“He’s one of the purest voices ever in country music,” says Bryan, who will co-host the ACMs telecast on CBS with Blake Shelton. “It’s amazing just how many things that guy has been through and seen through the years.”
Haggard had his first hit, Sing a Sad Song, in 1964 and topped the Billboard country-singles chart 38 times with songs including Okie From Muskogee and Mama Tried. He won the ACM’s first entertainer-of-the-year award in 1970, and the academy has named him its top male vocalist a recordsetting six times.
Bryan duets with Dierks Bentley on Working Man’s Poet, singing Pancho and Lefty, a Townes Van Zandt song that Haggard and Willie Nelson took to the top of the country charts in 1983.
“The original had a SpanishMexican flair,” he says. “We took a real different approach with it.” Bryan and producer Jeff Stevens envisioned the new version in the vein of Mumford & Sons, “something with some edge that moves along pretty good.”
Aldean covers a pair of early ’80s songs, Going Where the Lonely Go and Are the Good Times Really Over, while Keith remakes the 1972 chart-topper Carolyn. Jake Owen, Randy Houser, Thompson Square and Joe Nichols also contributed tracks.
Working Man’s Poet will be available digitally through iTunes. Physical copies of the album, sold only at Walmart, will include Brooks’ version of Haggard’s 1966 hit Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down, which also appeared on his recent box set for the retailer.