This title is no longer available from this publisher at this time. To let the publisher know you are interested in the title, please email bv-help@uchicago.edu.
University of Texas Press, 2013 Paper: 978-0-292-71771-8 | eISBN: 978-0-292-75416-4 Library of Congress Classification ML420.H115C36 2013 Dewey Decimal Classification 782.421642092
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Merle Haggard has enjoyed artistic and professional triumphs few can match. He’s charted more than a hundred country hits, including thirty-eight number ones. He’s released dozens of studio albums and another half dozen or more live ones, performed upwards of ten thousand concerts, been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and seen his songs performed by artists as diverse as Lynryd Skynyrd, Elvis Costello, Tammy Wynette, Willie Nelson, the Grateful Dead, and Bob Dylan. In 2011 he was feted as a Kennedy Center Honoree. But until now, no one has taken an in-depth look at his career and body of work.
In Merle Haggard: The Running Kind, David Cantwell takes us on a revelatory journey through Haggard’s music and the life and times out of which it came. Covering the entire breadth of his career, Cantwell focuses especially on the 1960s and 1970s, when Haggard created some of his best-known and most influential music, which helped invent the America we live in today. Listening closely to a masterpiece-crowded catalogue (including songs such as “Okie from Muskogee,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “Mama Tried,” “Working Man Blues,” “Kern River,” “White Line Fever,” “Today I Started Loving You Again,” and “If We Make It through December,” among many more), Cantwell explores the fascinating contradictions—most of all, the desire for freedom in the face of limits set by the world or self-imposed—that define not only Haggard’s music and public persona but the very heart of American culture.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Music critic and longtime Haggard fan, David Cantwell is the coauthor of the acclaimed Heartaches by the Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles, and his work has appeared in the Oxford American, Salon, and No Depression, among other publications.
REVIEWS
An incisive, critical analysis of one of the most complicated and misunderstood artists in country music...Both the Haggard fanatic and the casual country music fan will find their appreciation enriched.
— Kirkus Reviews
He recounts the high times when the Hag could seemingly do no wrong, as well as his lost decade of the 1990s, when the hot country radio format pushed the old man aside in favor of guys with hats and gals named Shania. Also of interest is a short chapter where Cantwell compares and contrasts the lives and careers of Hag and his contemporary Johnny Cash. 'Merle Haggard: The Running Kind” gives this singular country artist his due and treats fans to a deep and appreciative trek through his songs.
— Hannibal Courier-Post
The Running Kind is one of those critical/biographical works that you will want to read again, so prepare yourself to succumb to its charms. It’s worth it.
— PopMatters
Since ‘Okie from Muskogee’ was released in 1969 and made Haggard a lightning rod, he’s been perhaps the most-written-about artist in country music history. Yet all that writing has been in periodicals. . . . Now here is a book that takes a serious look at Haggard’s place in American culture and art, and that is no small thing. . . . This book is long overdue and will hopefully open up a dialogue on an artist who provides plenty of fodder.
— John Morthland, music writer and former editor at Rolling Stone, Creem, and Country Music
My favorite is David Cantwell’s book Merle Haggard—The Running Kind.
— Greil Marcus
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: "Silver Wings," Kansas City, Missouri, September 14, 2001
1. "Hungry Eyes," 1969
2. The Roots of His Raising
3. "Mama Tried," 1968
4. Toward the Bad He Kept on Turnin'
5. He Loves Them So: A Playlist of Early Influences
6. "Leonard," 1981
7. The Bakersfield Sound and Fury
8. Someone Told His Story in a Song
9. "I Started Loving You Again," 1968
10. The Legend of Bonnie and Him
11. "Sing Me Back Home," 1967
12. He's Living in the Good Old Days
13. He Likes Living Right and Being Free
14. "Irma Jackson," 1969
15. His Fightin' Side
16. He'd Rather Be Gone
17. "It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad)," 1972
18. He Wishes He Was Santa Claus
19. He Takes a Lot of Pride in What He Is (Hint: He's a White Boy)
20. "A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today," 1977
21. His Country Girl with Hot Pants On
22. He's Always on a Mountain When He Falls
23. "Rainbow Stew," 1981
24. He Wishes a Buck Was Still Silver (Not Really) and Likes the Taste of Yesterday's Wine (Really)
25. "Kern River," 1985
26. He's Going Where the Lonely Go
27. "Me and Crippled Soldiers," 1990
28. The Hag versus the Man in Black
29. If He Could Only Fly: Merle Haggard in the Twenty-first Century
University of Texas Press, 2013 Paper: 978-0-292-71771-8 eISBN: 978-0-292-75416-4
Merle Haggard has enjoyed artistic and professional triumphs few can match. He’s charted more than a hundred country hits, including thirty-eight number ones. He’s released dozens of studio albums and another half dozen or more live ones, performed upwards of ten thousand concerts, been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and seen his songs performed by artists as diverse as Lynryd Skynyrd, Elvis Costello, Tammy Wynette, Willie Nelson, the Grateful Dead, and Bob Dylan. In 2011 he was feted as a Kennedy Center Honoree. But until now, no one has taken an in-depth look at his career and body of work.
In Merle Haggard: The Running Kind, David Cantwell takes us on a revelatory journey through Haggard’s music and the life and times out of which it came. Covering the entire breadth of his career, Cantwell focuses especially on the 1960s and 1970s, when Haggard created some of his best-known and most influential music, which helped invent the America we live in today. Listening closely to a masterpiece-crowded catalogue (including songs such as “Okie from Muskogee,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “Mama Tried,” “Working Man Blues,” “Kern River,” “White Line Fever,” “Today I Started Loving You Again,” and “If We Make It through December,” among many more), Cantwell explores the fascinating contradictions—most of all, the desire for freedom in the face of limits set by the world or self-imposed—that define not only Haggard’s music and public persona but the very heart of American culture.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Music critic and longtime Haggard fan, David Cantwell is the coauthor of the acclaimed Heartaches by the Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles, and his work has appeared in the Oxford American, Salon, and No Depression, among other publications.
REVIEWS
An incisive, critical analysis of one of the most complicated and misunderstood artists in country music...Both the Haggard fanatic and the casual country music fan will find their appreciation enriched.
— Kirkus Reviews
He recounts the high times when the Hag could seemingly do no wrong, as well as his lost decade of the 1990s, when the hot country radio format pushed the old man aside in favor of guys with hats and gals named Shania. Also of interest is a short chapter where Cantwell compares and contrasts the lives and careers of Hag and his contemporary Johnny Cash. 'Merle Haggard: The Running Kind” gives this singular country artist his due and treats fans to a deep and appreciative trek through his songs.
— Hannibal Courier-Post
The Running Kind is one of those critical/biographical works that you will want to read again, so prepare yourself to succumb to its charms. It’s worth it.
— PopMatters
Since ‘Okie from Muskogee’ was released in 1969 and made Haggard a lightning rod, he’s been perhaps the most-written-about artist in country music history. Yet all that writing has been in periodicals. . . . Now here is a book that takes a serious look at Haggard’s place in American culture and art, and that is no small thing. . . . This book is long overdue and will hopefully open up a dialogue on an artist who provides plenty of fodder.
— John Morthland, music writer and former editor at Rolling Stone, Creem, and Country Music
My favorite is David Cantwell’s book Merle Haggard—The Running Kind.
— Greil Marcus
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: "Silver Wings," Kansas City, Missouri, September 14, 2001
1. "Hungry Eyes," 1969
2. The Roots of His Raising
3. "Mama Tried," 1968
4. Toward the Bad He Kept on Turnin'
5. He Loves Them So: A Playlist of Early Influences
6. "Leonard," 1981
7. The Bakersfield Sound and Fury
8. Someone Told His Story in a Song
9. "I Started Loving You Again," 1968
10. The Legend of Bonnie and Him
11. "Sing Me Back Home," 1967
12. He's Living in the Good Old Days
13. He Likes Living Right and Being Free
14. "Irma Jackson," 1969
15. His Fightin' Side
16. He'd Rather Be Gone
17. "It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad)," 1972
18. He Wishes He Was Santa Claus
19. He Takes a Lot of Pride in What He Is (Hint: He's a White Boy)
20. "A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today," 1977
21. His Country Girl with Hot Pants On
22. He's Always on a Mountain When He Falls
23. "Rainbow Stew," 1981
24. He Wishes a Buck Was Still Silver (Not Really) and Likes the Taste of Yesterday's Wine (Really)
25. "Kern River," 1985
26. He's Going Where the Lonely Go
27. "Me and Crippled Soldiers," 1990
28. The Hag versus the Man in Black
29. If He Could Only Fly: Merle Haggard in the Twenty-first Century
Cuba, Missouri, July 15, 2010
Selected Discography
Acknowledgments
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC