Every time Heartbeat books a show with Merle Haggard it makes us "proud to be an okie from muskogee"
Merle Haggard is an iconic country music legend, Country Music Hall of Famer, Grammy Award winner, and most recently, a Kennedy Center Honoree. His body of work easily places him beside Hank Williams as one of the most influential artists in country music. One thing that was consistent through Haggard’s early troubled years was his love and talent for music, which offered hope for a future. He lays out all aspects of his life in subsequent songs, proving himself an adept lyricist who specializes in sorrow and pain with a dash of hope and humor. “I’ll tell you what the public likes more than anything,” he told the Boston Globe, “It’s the most rare commodity in the world – honesty”.