Merle Haggard's My House of Memories: For The Record FROM OUR EDITORS
Merle Haggard is one of the all-time greats of country music. He has recorded more than 80 albums in the course of 30-plus years in the business, scoring 41 No. 1 songs in the process. Merle Haggard's My House of Memories picks up where his 1982 autobiography, Sing Me Back Home, left off, offering new tales of his hardscrabble childhood, his rebellious adolescence, an adult life often marred by violence, gambling, and drug use, and the simple and pure joy and redemption he finds in his music.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Picking up where his 1982 autobiography, Sing Me Back Home, left off, Haggard recounts his earliest childhood memories, revealing previously untold stories about his birth and troubled upbringing in a converted railroad boxcar. He recalls the innocence of the 1950s, when a boy could safely ride the rails with hobos and share their transient camps. He talks about his father's death when Merle was nine and how his childish disobedience soon erupted into full-blown delinquency.
Having lived a life marked by violence, gambling, and drugs, Merle shares the lessons he learned and how he continues to pay for decades of reckless living. He discloses that after earning more than a hundred million dollars, he's virtually broke. Merle reflects on how he felt at that bittersweet hour seven years ago, as he stood at his wife's bedside during the delivery of their son - and was served bankruptcy papers. And he recalls his family's move into a house so decayed that cattle literally roamed inside. He still lives there, amid improvements, today.
SYNOPSIS
Country music's award-winning and best-selling recording artist, Merle Haggard, brings us his long-awaited new autobiography, Merle Haggard's My House of Memories--a riveting account of Haggard's extremely turbulent and successful life. Picking up where his 1982 autobiography, Sing Me Back Home, left off, Haggard recounts his earliest childhood memories, revealing previously untold stories about his birth and troubled upbringing in a converted railroad boxcar. He recalls the innocence of the 1950s, when a boy could safely ride the rails with hobos and share their transient camps. He talks about his father's death when Merle was nine and how his childish disobedience soon erupted into full-blown delinquency.
In a thrilling narrative, he takes us on several high speed getaways from the California law and straight inside the state's homes for the criminally delinquent. On his nineteenth birthday, we follow him inside San Quentin and read a chilling account about a cellmate who begs Merle to join him in an escape that ultimately ends with the man's death. Haggard also recalls his befriending of Caryl Chessman, the notorious 1950s serial rapist, and the time they shared before Chessman's execution.
Having lived a life marked by violence, gambling, and drugs, Merle shares the lessons he learned and how he continues to pay for decades of reckless living. He discloses that after earning more than a hundred million dollars, he's virtually broke. Merle reflects on how he felt at that bittersweet hour seven years ago, as he stood at his wife's bedside during the delivery of their son--and was served bankruptcy papers. And he recalls his family's move into a house so decayed that cattle literally roamed inside. He still lives there, amid improvements, today.
Haggard relives the painful memory of the death of his mother, who a year earlier, unbeknownst to him, had written her life story in longhand. He reveals his astonishment at learning of her 1906 covered-wagon journey at age four, from Arkansas to Oklahoma, and of how she had to live underground in an earthen dugout. Merle had never known of his mother's life in the Southwest and the fears and hardships she faced.
As one of the industry's most respected artists, Merle Haggard still makes music for music's sake and does it with the enthusiasm of an apprentice. He plays several hours a day, every day, on and off the stage and speaks of the emotional salvation the eight notes of the music scale afford him.
My House of Memories captures the triumph of the human spirit through the power of persistence, through the power of love he finally discovered during his fifth marriage, and through the unsurpassed the joy of reentering fatherhood at age fifty-four. It is an exciting and moving account of the tumultuous life of a songwriter, singer, guitarist, and arranger whose words have earned him international renown as the poet of the common man.
About the Authors:
Merle Haggard is the author of Sing Me Back Home. He has recorded forty-one number one hits.
Tom Carter is a Nashville journalist who has collaborated on autobiographies of major country superstars, including Glen Campbell, Ralph Emery, Reba McEntire, and George Jones.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Named for one of Haggard's greatest hits, this book is published to coincide with a 50-city farewell tour. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
People Magazine
...An absorbing biography.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Here is a man with a story to tell--legendary, an American icon, Merle Haggard. We have been best friends since the early I960s. I value his friendship more than any earthly thing. One year ago I was lying in the hospital slipping in and out of the coma of death. A man walked quietly into my room, he did not say a word. He walked to my bedside, leaned down, and put his arms around me. I lay there for a while, feeling his arms gripping me as if he was afraid he would have to let go. I slightly opened my eyes and said, �Is that you, Hag?' He just nodded his head. He was only allowed to stay one minute, but that one moment is more precious to me than any time in my life. — Johnny Cash
In my opinion, Merle Haggard is one of the greatest country singers alive. I idolized Hank Williams, and he was a big influence on me, but when it comes t current singers, Merle is one of my favorites. There aren't many true country singers left. Merle Haggard is one of them. — George Jones
When I started to have to deal with all those things that have to do with real life, that's when Merle's music started to make sense to me.
— Emmylou Harris
Merle is an American original classic legend. He's every singer-songwriter's hero. He's a great singer. I asked George Jones who his favorite singer was, and he said �Merle Haggard.' God really blessed ol' Merle. He's the real deal!
— Alan Jackson
Merle Haggard is an incredibly versatile songwriter. He wrote all kinds of songs and all kinds of melodies. I think what we do is probably more influenced by music that was playin' twenty and thirty years ago than by contemporary artists from the last few years. In country, he was one of the top dogs. He always had that badass attitude that I like...he was the outlaw's outlaw.
— Kix Brooks
He has been called �the working man's poet,' and �om his songs and his type of singing, he does represent the working man.
— Robert Duvall
We're always asked about what singer influenced us the most, and for me, it's hands down: Merle Haggard. He had not only just the voice but he had that dark side that he would apply to his writing. I think the emotion and stuff he put into his music may be a bad thing for him, but it's a good thing for all of us out there listening to his music. — Ronnie Dunn
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