Seattle Tickets Finder

Legendary outlaw country artists Merle Haggard is coming to town for a show soon. Considering he is cracking 70 next year you may not have many more chances to see him performing live after this tour. Here is some interesting stuff from the wiki:

Merle Ronald Haggard (nicknamed “The Hag”; born April 6, 1937 in Bakersfield, CA) is an American country music singer, guitarist and songwriter.

Emerging from prison in the 1960s, Haggard was one of the early innovators of the Bakersfield Sound. With his hard biting electric guitar, he almost single-handedly introduced country to the electric sound. By the 1970s, he was aligned with the growing outlaw country movement, and has continued to release successful albums through the 1990s and into the 2000s. His work in familiar country themes – jail, betrayal, drinking and wandering – include a directness that reflects his own life experience. His deep, grumbling voice and his guitar work gives his country a blues-like quality in many cuts.

Anyway, this one is likely to sell out so if you are having trouble finding tickets to the show here is where we recommend you look online:

AIW Tickets has tickets to three shows starting at $125
Stubhub gets tickets on and off so is worth checking
TicketsNow has tickets as low as $115.

Here is more trivia about “The Hag”:

Haggard’s parents moved from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression; at that time, much of the population of Bakersfield was made up of economic refugees from Oklahoma and surrounding states. Haggard’s father died when Merle was 9, and Merle began to rebel against his mother. Authorities put him in a juvenile detention center[citation needed]. Haggard’s older brother gave him a guitar when Merle was 12, and he taught himself to play. In 1951, Haggard ran away to Texas with a friend but returned that same year and was arrested for truancy and petty larceny. He ran away from the next juvenile detention center to which he was sent and went to Modesto, California. He worked odd jobs - legal and not - and made his performing debut at a bar. Once he was found again, he was sent to the Preston School of Industry, a high-security installation. Shortly after he was released, 15 months later, Haggard was sent back after beating a local boy during a burglary attempt.

After his second release, Haggard saw Lefty Frizzell in concert with his friend Bob Teague and sang a couple of songs for him. Lefty was so impressed, he allowed Haggard to sing at the concert. The audience loved Haggard, and he began working on a full-time music career. After earning a local reputation, Haggard’s money problems caught up with him, and he was arrested for a robbery in 1957. He was sent to prison in San Quentin for 15 years. Even in prison, Haggard was wild. He planned an escape but never followed through, and he ran a gambling and brewing racket from his cell. Merle attended three of Johnny Cash’s concerts at San Quentin. Cash inspired Haggard to straighten up and pursue his singing. Several years later, at another Cash concert, Haggard came up to Johnny and told him “I certainly enjoyed your show at San Quentin.” Cash said “Merle, I don’t remember you bein’ in that show.” Merle Haggard said, “Johnny, I wasn’t in that show, I was in the audience.” While put in solitary confinement on death row, Haggard encountered author and death row inmate Caryl Chessman. Haggard had the opportunity to escape with a fellow inmate nicknamed “Rabbit”. Haggard passed on the chance to escape. The escape was successful. The man who escaped later shot a policeman and was returned to San Quentin and put to death. Chessman’s predicament along with Rabbit’s inspired Haggard to turn his life around, and he soon earned his high school equivalency diploma, kept a steady job in the prison’s textile plant and played in the prison’s band. He was released in 1960 and in March 1972 was pardoned by then California governor Ronald Reagan. Once released, Haggard said it took about four months to get used to being out of the penitentiary and that, at times, he actually wanted to go back in. He said it was the loneliest feeling he’d ever had.

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40 #1 Hits

1. Branded Man
2. The Fugitive
3. Mama Tried
4. Sing Me Back Home
5. The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde
6. Hungry Eyes
7. Okie from Muskogee
8. Workin’ Man Blues
9. The Fightin’ Side of Me
10. Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man)
11. Carolyn
12. Grandma Harp
13. It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad)
14. Everybody’s Had the Blues
15. I Wonder if They Ever Think of Me
16. If We Make It Through December
17. Old Man from the Mountain
18. Things Aren’t Funny Anymore
19. Always Wanting You
20. It’s All in the Movies
21. Kentucky Gambler
22. Movin’ On
23. Cherokee Maiden
24. The Roots of My Raising
25. I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink
26. I’m Always on a Mountain When I Fall (made it only to # 2 on billboard)
27. If We’re Not Back in Love by Monday (made it only to # 2 on billboard)
28. Bar Room Buddies
29. My Favorite Memory
30. Big City
31. Yesterday’s Wine (with George Jones)
32. Going Where the Lonely Go
33. Pancho and Lefty (with Willie Nelson)
34. You Take Me for Granted
35. Let’s Chase Each Other Around the Room
36. Someday When Things Are Good
37. That’s the Way Love Goes
38. A Place to Fall Apart
39. Natural High
40. Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Star