{"id":2967,"date":"2016-04-06T01:16:38","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T08:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=2967"},"modified":"2016-04-06T14:44:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T21:44:00","slug":"merle-haggard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2016\/04\/merle-haggard\/","title":{"rendered":"MERLE HAGGARD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

MERLE HAGGARD<\/strong><\/h1>\n

After beating lung cancer, \u201cThe Hag\u201d still is who he is<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n

Merle Haggard\u2019s new album is called I Am What I Am<\/em>, but that title could have been affixed to almost anything he\u2019s recorded during his nearly half-century as one of America\u2019s most stubbornly self-possessed singers and songwriters. He has built a body of work unequaled in the country genre, one created on\u00a0clear-eyed slice-of-life classics like \u201cOkie From Muskogee,\u201d \u201cHungry Eyes,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m a Lonesome Fugitive\u201d and \u201cMama Tried.\u201d<\/p>\n

I Am What I Am<\/em> is his first album since being treated for lung cancer in 2008, causing a rare\u2014and thankfully temporary\u2014disruption in his ceaselessly prolific output.<\/p>\n

How has your approach to recording evolved over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have the knowledge of the game now. I didn\u2019t know anything when I went in to do the first record. I didn\u2019t know anything\u00a0about it. I had a producer, Fuzzy Owen,\u00a0who helped me a lot. Fuzzy still travels with me, but he\u2019s deaf now! So he\u2019s not able to help me in the sessions. And as for\u00a0the musicians, most of the ones we worked with back then are either dead or have one foot in the grave. I work with a lot of young musicians now. Everything\u00a0has changed.<\/p>\n

What are some of those changes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The methods of recording have changed quite a bit. They\u2019ve got it now where if you can get somewhere in the general area of the right pitch they can bring you into key with an electronic manipulative device. But we still do our recordings the same way we did \u2019em 30 years ago. We still go to tape. We have a 24-track board and mix things down from that. We don\u2019t do the digital thing until we go to the mastering room. They demand us to put it into a digital format so that it can be played on the air. But we try to bring it back as close as we can to reality by using some of the old methods.<\/p>\n

Is that your natural singing voice that we\u2019re hearing? <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s really me. It\u2019s a great effort to get my voice to sound that way. My breathing\u2019s been affected because of the surgery, to the point where I now have to think about how I breathe. In the past, I didn\u2019t have to watch my breathing. Now, it\u2019s kind of like swimming\u2014I\u2019ve got to get a breath when I come to the top. I didn\u2019t used to have to worry about things like that.<\/p>\n

Has it made you a better singer? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll have to leave that to the critics and to the audience. In my own opinion, I think it\u2019s made a better singer of me.<\/p>\n

Does the new album\u2019s peaceful tone reflect how you feel about your <\/strong>life now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m doing probably as good as a guy my age could be expected. I\u2019ve got two lovely children and a lovely wife. I\u2019ve got a lot of good friends. I seem to be holding my own. I\u2019d be foolish not to be thankful to the Lord for my blessings.<\/p>\n

In the title track, you sing that you\u2019re no longer a fugitive or a drifter. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to admit that you\u2019re 73. It\u2019s not good news, you know? The next big event is going to be your funeral. So I guess that song is explanatory of the condition of my life. I\u2019m just leaning back in comfort and saying, \u201cI\u2019m here. This is me. This is what\u2019s left. If you like it, well, good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Jim Malec<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MERLE HAGGARD After beating lung cancer, \u201cThe Hag\u201d still is who he is Merle Haggard\u2019s new album is called I Am What I Am, but that title could have been affixed to almost anything he\u2019s recorded during his nearly half-century as one of America\u2019s most stubbornly self-possessed singers and songwriters. He has built a body […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[70,2266,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15256,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions\/15256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}