THE HAG: THE LIFE, TIMES, AND MUSIC OF MERLE HAGGARD by author Marc Eliot is a biography of the legendary country music star who lived a life that includes the hard work and determination that was required to find success in music after his imprisonment for armed robbery, and the high and low points experienced along the way.

Merle found success in Bakersfield CA as another country legend Buck Owens did before him, and Buck becomes an important person in both the personal and professional life of Merle, as does Buck’s ex wife Bonnie who is an important part of Merle’s life throughout his career.

Something the author does quite well is to give a window into the mental scars Merle bore from his imprisonment, that while giving him motivation also adversely affected his personal and professional relationships, and along with the stress of life on the road and the physical and mental strains involved, all combined to make him a complicated and at times difficult person to deal with, and unfortunately affect his decision making in ways that made him somewhat of a loner who never seemed to really experience the satisfaction he must have envisioned when he set off on the path of a life as a successful and respected music star.

5 stars, and recommended to all interested in the life and times of an artist who goes against the grain while bucking authority, and who succeeds in the face of adversity.

Hag is a story about the differences in country music from the East coast to the West coast. Principally about the life of Merle Haggard, it’s really an overview of country music history from the 1950’s forward. Who knew? Fives wives! Over 50 records! 20 number 1 hits! Merle turned his story of being in jail to work in his favor. A great read for anyone interested in music. For further info check out the PBS program Last of the Breed about Haggard, Willie Nelson and Ray Price. Thank you to NetGalley and Hackett Books Publishing for the ARC! I loved this book!!!!!

I've always been a fan of classic country music, so I was excited to read Marc Eliot's The Hag. This was a well written, well researched biography. Marc Eliot sticks to the facts and still managed to tell the story of Merle Haggard's life in an interesting and engaging way. I would highly recommend this book to any music fans. This was a slow read for me, not because it was poorly written or uninteresting, but because it is dense with lots of information backed up by footnotes and source material. I received a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

I love Merle's music. I don't think I have ever listened to, "Sing Me Back Home" without tears, and "Today, I Started Loving You Again'" is in my opinion among the best country songs ever. Merle was a true musical, songwriting genius. I am so happy that this was written to learn and remember him by. I didn't give five stars because there were a few items that were incorrect, such as steel pedal, instead of the proper pedal steel.

I read this book a while ago and thought I knew some parts of his life it was interesting to find out more. I do live in Bakersfield so many years ago when I moved here some of the older people would tell me stories of Haggard and Owens and how there were two separate places to see each of them. Where Haggard grew up was rough and poor heck some of the areas are still that way. So him getting in trouble I guess was expected he at least was able to listen to older men and change before he could not.
The author goes into his life of marriages and also being on the road when his children were young. You get an honest look at how he wasn’t faithful and how he allowed alcohol and drugs into his world. Even with all of the records he sold and songs he wrote he still seemed like it was not enough.
You get an honest look at his life which is good and you also get to see just how many songs he wrote himself as well. He still gave back to Bakersfield when he got older so maybe he tried to make peace with the past who knows. Overall a good book and worth the read.

I grew up in the south listening to the voices of country music greats from Nashville to California. Merle Haggard was one of those. Like most everyone else I identified Haggard with "Okie From Muskogee". This book was an eye-opener for me of the artistic achievements that go way beyond that song. Like many country greats, Merle was born poor. His father died when he was nine leaving him with little of the tough supervision and discipline he needed. He avoided school, road trains, and stole cars and money. Haggard spent a great deal of his youth in juvenile detention and his beginning adult life in prison. Music was his one saving grace. Following a tumultuous youth, he gained success, not just as a singer but as a songwriter. He married five times, the most notable to the ex-wife of Buck Owens, Bonnie who was a successful singer-songwriter in her own right and toured with him for years following their divorce. He fathered at least five children and spent little time with them or on the homefront, feeling the most comfortable in his tour buses, a place that was home for him for most of his adult life. Haggard was highly successful but also self-destructive and like most creative geniuses he was never quite comfortable with himself and his achievements.
This book is an excellent examination of the country and pop culture of the 1960s and beyond. It tells in detail the story of Haggard's work and how that work was influenced and how it influenced others. For music lovers of all kinds, it is a must-read. The book is well researched and well written, documenting the life of one of country music's cultural greats. Thanks to #NetGalley#TheHag for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Excellent story of the life of Merle Haggard. And not just his story, but also his parents and grandparents. I now understand the meaning of his song, "Okie From Muskogee". Never made sense to me knowing he was from California. I am thankful for all the bits of information I never knew. He was a mysterious and guarded man.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My thanks to Hatchette books, Marc Elliot and Netgalley.
So, it seems that I have discovered that I might have wanted to kick Merle Haggard in the face!
After reading this book, I now know that it's best to just enjoy his voice and ignore the rest!

The Hag by Marc Eliot was such an interesting book! Not too hard, because Merle Haggard was certainly an interesting guy!!

Mr. Eliot takes you thru Merles life from beginning to end, the good and the bad and everything in between. Definitely the definitive work on Merle and a must read by all country music fans.

I enjoyed reading about a man I knew very little about. Some parts were hard to read ( about the Merle, not the writer) but that is what a good book should do.... Tell all the good, bad and the ugly. You can tell the writer did his research!
3.5⭐

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Books for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Hag is a well-written book that provided so much information about the life of Merle Haggard. The book provides many details about the Bakersfield music scene. I highly recommend this book for any country music fan.

The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard by Marc Eliot is an insightful biography of a country legend. This insightful read shares a behind-the-scenes look into the life of a country superstar. I learn so much about Merle and a lot of Country Music artists while reading this

The Hag by Marc Eliot is the biography of country legend Merle Haggard.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Hachette Books, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


My Synopsis:
Jim and Flossie Haggard had a rough start to their marriage, but they persevered.  Blessed with a 16 year old son James "Lowell", and an 18 year old daughter Lillian, they were surprised to find another child on the way.

Merle Ronald Haggard was born April 6th, 1937 in Bakersfield, California.  He grew up in a converted refrigerated boxcar that his father had designed and built, right next to the train tracks.  From infancy, he loved music, and as soon as he could, he loved riding the rails.

Merle did not had an easy life, but most of it was his own fault.  His father died when he was only nine, and from that moment on, he became an angry young man, who for some unknown reason, blamed himself for his father's stroke.  His already lackadaisical attendance at school was now almost non-existent, and truancy would be one of the first things he was charged with.    When he was 20, he was sent to San Quentin Prison.  He had been arrested seventeen times for a series of petty crimes, sent to reform schools and jails, and often escaping from them.  This time, he was going away for a while.  Although unfair, the judge was making an example of him.  He spent almost 3 years in San Quentin.  From then on, Merle considered himself a jailbird, and always watched his back.  He never completely trusted anyone again.  However, that time in prison taught Merle that he didn't want to go back.

His love life was a bit of a disaster, as he was a womanizer from start to finish.  He was married 5 times, but his true love was his second wife, Bonnie (Buck Owen's ex).

Merle was also not much of a businessman, often giving away the rights to some of his songs just because he got a line or two from someone.  Eventually, his lack of business sense, his drug use,  his unbridled spending, his divorces,  and his unbending wish to remain "classic" country, would be his undoing.

He played on everything from HeeHaw, to Carnegie Hall and the White House for President Nixon. and toured with Bob Dylan.   His strong ideas about what country music should sound like left no room for many others.  At one time he wanted to be a cross-over artist, but he didn't seem to like rock, rock-a-billy, or any derivative.  He mellowed with age.

Merle Haggard died on his birthday, April 6, 2016.  He was 79 years old.


My Opinions:   
While this book has a phenomenal amount of information on Merle Haggard, I also learned things about his relationships with Lefty Frizzell, Buck Owens (and Bonnie), Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and others. There was also quite a bit of information about Merle's family, and members of his band.

I liked discovering where the words to his songs originated, some of which he wrote, and some written by others.

I guess the only thing that I didn't like was the fact that the book seemed so long.  Don't get me wrong, most of it was really entertaining and a fast read, but there were parts that just dragged.  Those were usually parts that involved band members, or foot-notes, or other stars that intersected with Merle (at some point).  Just too much irrelevant information.  However, I liked the Appendixes in the back of the book.

Marc Eliot did a lot of research into Haggard's life, but also into what was happening around him at the time.  He interviewed over 100 people who knew the man, and so we, the reader came to know both the dark side, and the better side of Merle Haggard.  He was a man who pulled himself up and out of poverty, but delved into drugs, and booze, and women.  He was a gifted musician,  singer,  song-writer, and a loyal friend.

Merle Haggard is a legend.  His music career stretched across decades of both centuries.  He released 63 albums, and had 37 singles that hit Number 1 on the charts.  He recorded over 600 songs, 250 of which he wrote. His ability to impersonate other musical legends helped him to create his own style, taking a little from each.  His song-writing came from the heart.

I may not have liked some of his actions, but Merle Haggard's music endears him to me.  My favorite songs....the controversial Okie from Muskogee, Mama Tried,  Hungry Eyes, Branded Man and Sing Me Back Home.  OMG, I can barely stop there...

I love Merle Haggard. I have since I was a little kid, his songs bring me back to so many memories I have and I will always love him. I was looking forward to reading this a lot. It took me a long time to get through this. It was very dense. I normally don’t read biographies, I’m more of an autobiography person.

However, I learn so much about Merle and a lot of Country Music artists while reading this. I was constantly messaging my family asking if they knew some of this information!
I think if you like biographies or country music this is a perfect book for you.

4 Stars!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story of this music legend and his music is portrayed in such a way as you feel that you are living these times right with Merle. The author gives you a detailed view of not only Merle's life but many other country music stars as well as the Bakersfield music. The personal quotes and stories about Merle from his friends give you a personal view of the true Merle. The excellent research by the author is very evident and adds many interesting historical facts.
I highly recommend this book whether you are a Merle fan or not. It is an outstanding read and a definite keeper for my bookshelf.

I fancy myself a pretty big Merle fan, or at least the daughter of a huge Merle fan. I ultimately wanted to read this book because I knew my dad would love it. I am not typically a big fan of memoirs but this one was really intriguing! I loved reading about The Hag and his life. I learned a few things I didn't know. Thank you for my early copy in exchange for my honest review!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Hachette Books for an advanced copy of this musical history and biography.

Johnny Cash has been responsible for many classic songs, performances, and even political stances. Probably one of his finest acts was giving hope to a poor lost soul during his show at San Quentin State Prison, and making him one of the most important country stars whose catalog of songs no bar band or sad jukebox could exist without. Marc Eliot's The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard, tells the story of this country legend, a dirt poor son born with a gift for playing music, but a self-destructive streak that nearly derailed him at every turn.

The biography is, as are all of Mr. Eliot's many biographies well researched and even better, extremely well written. Facts are checked, checked again, and a story might appear twice depending on the story and its veracity. Music biographies can be tough to write as time, pharmaceuticals, grudges, ego, and sheer mundanity of the touring life can make stories fade, or grow, omission sometimes a mistake, or necessary. Mr. Eliot brings in influences, the history of California music, and the rise of Country as a musical genre, along with interviews with friends, enemies, hangers-on and devoted fans to tell the very rich story about a complicated and difficult man.

The music is a major character in the story, but a character that really is the most importance is Mr. Haggard's father who died, when Merle was young and leaving an absence that the singer tried to fill with crime, women, drugs and alcohol. Only luck, with a dash of Johnny Cash, and perseverance steered him right, though many including his mother tried. Plus the stories, songs written on fast food bags, his hours of practicing to make the music perfect, his mimicry of other singers, his many albums, and his always trying to make his father proud.

The only problem I have with biographies is you know that the story will come to the usual end of everyone rich or poor, famous or unknown. The song will fade out, and the house lights will turn off. Merle Haggard in some places was not a very good person, but he wasn't a really bad person either. The Hag is a very good biography about a man with many sorrows. Perfect for country music, or music fans in general, and those that enjoy a very well written biography.

Merle Haggard is known for epitomizing old country and being one of the Outlaws, but I for one didn’t know much about his personal life or career before reading this biography. This book gives a comprehensive overview of where Merle Haggard came from, his upbringing and the things that influenced him in his life such as being incarcerated at San Quentin, the death of his father and his eventual pardon. A notoriously guarded man, we get the sense that we may never know the real story as his experiences led him not to trust many people. The Hag’s career is one that could only have begun in the era when he began, pre-social media. In today’s world he would have been cancelled for his less than impressive record of his treatment of women and history of violence. He was a good old boy in a male dominated world. This is an instance where I have to separate the man from the artist as his career and musical accomplishments can’t be denied. He stuck to doing what he believed in and what he did best even when it was not the most popular thing to be.

If I were to note any negative aspects of the book for me, I found the people who loved him in his life did not really get their due. His mother Flossie, who helped raise his children and stood by him his whole life, is in the background and her death is not even noted. We get some quotes from his many children, but there is more of a back story on Buck Owen then anyone else close to him, their rivalry throughout their lives is constantly referenced.

Overall, I have a better understanding of what made a man like Merle Haggard and what influenced his music as well as a whole generation of artists.

I received an ARC of “ The Hag” from the publisher through Net Galley. My thanks to both for the pleasure of reading the book.

I have read Marc Elliot’s biography “ “The Hag” and enjoyed the story of a country music great. It is, of course, about the country music icon Merle Haggard. I knew a bit of Haggard’s music and very little of his personal life , but y the final page of this book, I was fully informed about both. Of course I had heard him sing on the radio and on the recent PBS Ken Burns special about country music, which is what prompted me to want to read this Biography.
Writing with a clear style, tells the story of a hard-scrabble family who lived through the hard times of the Depression, one of the families of “Okies” who rolled west to California to start over . Despite the efforts of a father who worked at any job he could get around the oil fields of Bakersfield, and a loving pious mother, Flossie, who raised him to be honest and hard working, Haggard was a wild child. He hated school and played hooky so much that truant officers knew him intimately. What he did learn was how to steal. Between shoplifting and smash and grab thieving , young Merle spent considerable time in jails, from which he usually walked away from as soon as he could, grabbing a ride on freight cars until things cooled off and he could return home to his long-suffering, loving mother.The thingsMerle did like as he grew up were girls, drinking, partying and playing guitar.
His wildness eventually earned him being branded as incorrigible and time in “ State Schools” I.e. , reformatories. Eventually, a botched gas station smash and grab,and a car theft, earned him a term in San Quentin. It was a seminal event in his life, second only with the first time he played music .
Often moving, sometimes shocking , the author tells of Haggard’s rise to country music stardom as Merle goes from playing with pick - up bands in honky- tonks around his hometown, to fan-filled auditoriums . It’s a tale of boozy nights and long bus trips, the camaraderie of his band, of easy women and Haggard’s growing fame the foremost interpreter of country music. It is also a tale of his five wives. Merle loved women, especially those with “ big tops and big bottoms” Having a wife and kids at home did not slow him slipping off to enjoy truck stop dames. As the author writes, “For him, marriage signaled the end of something rather than the beginning”. He married women he lusted for who ignited and returned his passions. His second wife, Bonnie Owens ex-wife of Buck Owens joined Haggard’s entourage, easily fitting in with her good voice. Although they loved one another, he needed her for more than her musical talent, a fact he did not realize until the day she could no longer stand his cheating and divorced him. Only then did he realize how much he missed her in his life. Bonnie performed with Merle and his band even after the divorce; she never stopped loving him until her death. He never stopped loving her even after. It is quite a love story.
Mr. Elliot’s biography of a man absorbed in and devoted to his music,of the demons he fought as he rose to prominence is compelling reading. Yes, there is a bit of “and then he wrote” detail,as well as tales of all the musicians and notables Haggard met as he went form beer halls to Lincoln Center. Haggard’s climb to stardom. His faults , fears and falls are detailed. He made a lot of money and spent it freely. Was taken by promoters and never turned his back on a friend. But he never lost his musical focus- real country music played with feeling and love.
Notes: an addendum lists his record and albums. Since this was an advanced copy, photographs were not included, but indicated that the final editions would have pictures.
Recommended for Merle Haggard fans and for those who enjoy bios of entertainment stars.