Mama's Hungry Eyes  (Click on title to listen to the song)

I am a huge Merle Haggard fan as I have said many times on this web site. I think Merle Haggard is a true legend in the music industry and one of the reasons that I and millions of others care so much about country music. He is definitely one of the reasons I wanted to be a singer. I still remember the first time I heard him on the Buck Owens television show. I had never heard a singer and a band fit together so tightly. I remember calling my mom and dad into the living room to see and hear this guy sing. I guess I was impressed since I can still see that moment in my mind just as if it was yesterday. Besides having a voice that is so true in pitch, he also has the power of "inflection" which is the ability to make us all believe that he means every word he sings and once you spend a little time around him you know that he does. One of the great things about being such a magnificent songwriter is that he not only knows what he thinks about a certain subject he is also able to write it down and express his own feelings instead of someone else's.

It seems like Merle Haggard has never been afraid to express his feelings. When we ask Merle, how he felt about so many of the new country acts naming him as their inspiration for becoming country music artists his reply was and I quote "I hope they don't try to blame this all on me". It is no secret that Haggard has not been very excited about the direction that country music has taken as a whole but he still has certain artists that he believes are the real thing. Here is another quote from Haggard that I found on the internet:

April 19, 2000 06:29 PM
by Rob Evans, live Daily Editor

Merle Haggard Music has signed a recording deal with Anti Inc., an imprint of Southern California's independent, punk-oriented Epitaph label. The country music icon is mixing a new, self-produced record at his studio in Northern California, and the label expects to release it this fall.  
 
"I'm working with a rock and roll label on purpose in hopes that they have the knowledge to sell records, because the people in the circle I've been around don't seem to have the ability or the desire," Haggard said in a statement. "I feel, in judging my own music, that I'd be much more comfortable performing on the same show with Eric Clapton or Bonnie Raitt than pretty much any of the artists being billed as Country today."

And on Nov.29, 2005 Haggard will be on the bill with The Rolling Stones for their performance in Dallas, Texas as part of their latest world tour. Haggard and The Stones. Now that's a show.

I know this sounds more like a tribute to Merle Haggard than an explanation of a session but I will get to that. I think that pioneers like Merle, Buck Owens, Wynn Stewart, Lefty Frizzel, George Jones and many others should have a few more tributes and respects after their names for what they have given all of the country music industry and all of us as music lovers.  Read on...

< Rolling Stones stage for the 2005 tour