Livin' Legend "MERLE"

If the question were asked, "who forged the genre that is known today as 'modern country music'?," only a tiny group of country immortals could step forward to share the spotlight. One, out of that select handful, would be Merle Haggard. No, he wasn't in the delivery room on the morning Country Music was born; it just seems like he was. And you won't hear anybody refer to him as the father of Country Music. But many of its students will swear he's at least some level of Godfather.

In the ever-expanding array of Country Music stars, hitmakers, and idols, Haggard walks in no man's shadow. Instead he casts a far-reached shadow of his own. Rare is the country balladeer that has mastered the idiom at so many different levels as has he. In listening to his uncanny craftsmanship, one quickly recognizes that this is a consummate troubadour who could have carved his niche as either a songwriter, a musician or a singer, so gifted was he in all those areas. Instead he chose to expand in all those dimensions simultameously and, in so doing, developed himself into the quintessential country artiste, rural America's Renaissance man, whose caliber will long provide a standard for all country artists who follow.