Los Angeles (USA), April 6 (EFE) .- The artist Merle Haggard, one of the great references of country music in the US, died today just on the day of his 79th birthday California, his manager said on NBC.
Considered a legend within the country as a performer and composer, Haggard had recently had pneumonia, an illness that forced him to cancel several concerts in recent months.
Born April 6, 1937 in the California city of Bakersfield, Haggard grew up in a poor family of immigrants from Oklahoma in the context of the Great Depression.
Entered into contact with country music when was a teenager, a time in which he began his frequent trouble with the law by which, later, became imprisoned in San Quentin.
his musical career began in the 60s when , after being part of the band of Wynn Stewart, managed to publish “Strangers” in 1965, his first solo album and the first of a very long, fruitful and successful career that would release more than 70 albums.
Haggard fit well in known as “Bakersfield sound”, a stream in country music that emerged in response to the “Nashville sound” and proposing an edgier and more importance of electrical instrumentation approach.
it was also much admired his poetic ability to narrate, through their songs, the life of the working class.
according to details Country Music Hall of Fame, where he was admitted in 1994, Haggard recorded more than 600 songs in his career, of which 250 were own compositions, and managed more than 30 number ones.
Among his most popular songs are “Okie from Muskogee,” “Today I Started loving You Again, “” Mama Tried “and” Workin ‘Man Blues “.
Haggard also expanded its country style cover the American musical tradition by combining it with jazz, swing, blues and folk.
His latest album, “Django and Jimmie” was published in 2015 and was an album for four hands with Willie Nelson.
His work, already considered canonical in the country, influenced several generations of artists and, after news of his death, different musicians bemoaned in social networks loss and praised his legacy.
As shown, the musician Jason Isbell said network social Twitter Merle Haggard was “the best composer of country” that has existed, while the artist Carrie Underwood said the deceased was a “pioneer” and said that “no one like him.”
also, the spokesman of the White House, Josh Earnest, said in his daily press briefing that the death of Haggard is “a loss for country music” and for all who came to know personally.
Finally, the Recording Academy US said in a statement that Haggard was “a rare hero” of the country, he said its massive success was based on its ability to honor “the bandits and losers” and stressed that his death has lost an innovative member of the music community. EFE
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