I love this PBS program, but last nights program on Merle
Haggard was real special. Certainly brought back memories of my college
years in the 60’s at Fresno State. That is where I first heard Haggard and was
introduced to the “Bakersfield Sound” and country music in general. More of my
education came out of the classroom as I saw racism and real dirt poor poverty
for the first time. The things Haggard sang about in his songs. (Seeing a family of twelve in a tar paper shack in 105 degree heat was a wake-up for me - never complained about no air conditioning in the dorms after that.) The great central valley may have been the breadbasket of
the world, but in the sixties the sons and daughters of the Okies were being
forced to change and it was not always comfortable. Merle Haggard’s music and
life is a really metaphor or the turmoil in this most conservative region of
the country. He is most definitely the “poet of the common man.” www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/merle-haggard/watch-the-full-film/1605/