Country singer, songwriter and guitarist Merle Haggard was among the founders of the popular and distinctive "Bakersfield sound." While Nashville was, and is, the undisputed capital of country music, Bakersfield, California, often called...

Merle Ronald Haggard (born April 6, 1937) is an American country music singer, guitarist and songwriter. Emerging from prison in the 1960s, having broken out 17 different times, Haggard was one of the early innovators of the Bakersfield Sound. With his...

The career-launching music of another kind of '60s counterculturalist compiled again MERLE HAGGARD Strangers/Swinging Doors and the Bottle Let Me Down I'm a Lonesome Fugitive/Branded Man Sing Me Back Home/The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde Mama Tried/Pride in What...

The Dixie Chicks' recent hit single, "Long Time Gone," mocked Nashville's cookie-cutter country acts, declaring, "They sound tired, but they don't sound Haggard." Now Merle Haggard himself has used that same pun to write the title track of his new album, "Haggard Like Never...

Singer Henson Cargill, whose 1968 hit "Skip a Rope" topped the country charts with its understated take on social problems, has died. He was 66.Cargill died Saturday following complications from surgery, Matthews Funeral Home in Edmond confirmed."Skip a Rope" made it to No. 1 on...

Following is the list of nominees for the 42nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards announced Monday in Nashville. The awards will be presented May 15 in Las Vegas.Entertainer of the Year: Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, George Strait.Top Male Vocalist:...