“Hag, you might be the guy anyone think I am,” told you Johnny Dollars so you can Merle Haggard, whoever existence and you can lyrics connected gorgeously. Certainly one of Haggard’s 38 First nation attacks, signature music such “Okie Regarding Muskogee,” “Mother Experimented with” and you may “Play Me Home” combined autobiography and you can feelings with a honky-tonk soul in the traditions out of Lefty Frizzell and you may Hank Williams. As he advised American Songwriter this season, “Either the songs have got to upcoming too quickly for my situation in order to establish, and sometimes it nevertheless perform.” The brand new respected Haggard, which once create seven albums within the an excellent around three-12 months several months, was a symbol of nation conservatism due to his hippie-baiting antique “Okie Away from Muskogee.” But really, their audio individually swayed rock touchstones such as the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Inactive in addition to Running Stones’ Beggars Meal, and Hag could have been influenced right back. “I am a rock & roller,” he recently advised Going Stone. “I am a country man on account of my personal raisin’, however, I am an effective Chuck Berry man. “