Merle Haggard, country music’s outsider hero, dies at 79

Merle Haggard, one of the most successful singers in the history of country music died at his farm in California on April 6, He was 79.

• Haggard had recently canceled several concerts, saying he had double pneumonia.
• Haggard, a ruggedly handsome performer who strode onto a stage, guitar in hand, as a poet of the common man. Thirty-eight of his singles, including Working Man Blues and the 1973 recession-era lament If We Make It Through December, reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart from 1966 to 1987.
• Haggard recorded more than three dozen No. 1 country hits in a musical career that spanned sixdecades, from the 1960s into the 2010s.

Merle Ronald Haggard:

• Haggard born on April 6 1937 after 79 years he passed away on his birthday.
• His description of 1969’s Okie from Muskogee, perhaps his most famous song, changed over the years.
• Merle was named by his peers as the number one country artist of all-time by CMT.  Haggard has 38 number one hits on the country charts.
• He received many honours and awards for his music, including aKennedy CenterHonor (2010), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), a BMI Icon Award (2006) and various honours