Review: Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself on PBS July 21

By April MacIntyre Jul 17, 2010, 23:45 GMT

American Masters pays tribute to a country legend on "Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself" premiering July 21, 2010 on PBS.

The famous lean Bakersfield Sound that Haggard mastered was born from a tidal wave of Oklahoma residents fleeing the Dust Bowl in the Thirties for a better life and a chance for work in California. They were not welcomed with open arms.

Haggard's voice over and recollections are profoundly touching, as it is clear he loved his dad, whose early death (Merle was 10 years old) affected him deeply.  Haggard became his mama's wild child and was in San Quentin Prison before his 20th birthday.

The film features archival footage and interviews with Merle Haggard and his family, plus actor Robert Duvall, and singers John Fogerty, Kris Kristofferson, Keith Richards, Tanya Tucker and many local friends and musicians from the Bakersfield area who talked about their families shared difficulties establishing themselves in California.

“I’m living proof that things go wrong in America and I’m also living proof that things can go right,” says Merle Haggard.  Haggard's high school life was punctuated with numerous Juvie stays, always exacerbated by his escape until finally, after an amusing anecdote about car theft, Haggard is sent away to San Quentin Prison to cool his heels with the big boys. That experience deeply scarred him, and he doesn't fully reveal all the horrors, but you can see it in his face, hear it in his voice on what he does share with you in this documentary.

What Haggard had and still possesses is believability with the common man and woman, as Haggard's clear vocals lament the plight of the hardscrabble life and he sings with a pitch-perfect tone that made one of his biggest fans, Johnny Cash, say in a past interview that no American country singer sang better the "The Hag", Merle's nickname.

It was Cash who performed at San Quentin, with a young Haggard in the audience, who gave Merle that clarion call to change his life and pursue his natural talent to sing like his boyhood heroes, Lefty Frizzell and Bob Wills, the King of Texas Swing.

Insight and reflection abound from actor and fellow country singer Robert Duvall, musicians John Fogerty, Billy Gibbons, Kris Kristofferson, Keith Richards, Tanya Tucker, Don Was and Dwight Yoakam among others.

The documentary reveals Merle Haggard in his seventies now, but still as a relevant artist on top of his game, deeply loved by his wife and children, and even his past wives who bonded and are all on friendly terms.  Off-stage, Merle always has his pet dog tucked under his arm.

Haggard telling us his tales of hopping freight trains at the age of 10, living the life of a teen truant and drinker and being locked up some 17 times as a youngster makes any mama shake their head. "The Hag" admits he was a rotten kid to his poor mother, her plate full working to support the Haggard family after his larger than life father passes away.

Merle's honesty and unvarnished personal history make this all the more a wonderful tale to savor, along with all the brilliant old footage interspersed of Haggard when he was a dashingly handsome young man. He still looks and sounds great.

According to PBS, for this effort, filmmaker Gandulf Hennig followed Haggard with his camera for the past three years – at home on the ranch and on his concert tours.

“For me as a documentary filmmaker, it has been a dream come true and at times a challenge,” says Hennig. “Merle is very guarded, at the same time, very honest. As an artist, he is as original and as spontaneous as it gets. Working with Merle, I learned to prepare for the unexpected at all times – it seems that he often doesn’t know himself what he’s going to do next. There is no middle ground with him. It's not always easy, but it’s always exciting.”

Anyone who loves American music, country music history and redemptive yarns will absolutely adore this film; it really is a no miss for all ages, and shows that even at 73, surviving a recent lung operation, Haggard's relentless work ethic shows us all there's no retiring when you have that much talent to share with the world.

American Masters celebrates this “Lonesome Fugitive” in Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself premiering Wednesday, July 21 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings.)

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.