New York Times best-selling author Marc Eliot knew the subject of his latest released biography, "The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard," for 25 years before his death in 2016. The ...

Everyone knew Merl Reagle as the puzzle guy, the Tucsonan who made it big on a national stage as the constructor of puzzles published in newspapers around the country including the Arizona Daily Star.

One quality of Merle’s songbook that I especially admire is that he doesn’t shy away from the fact that every life is filled with pain and loss and struggle. Life is hard, most dreams go unfulfilled, ...

Author Marc Eliot knew the subject of his latest released biography, "The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard," for 25 years before his death in 2016. The writer's exposure to music, ...

When Merle Haggard died on his 79th birthday, April 6th, the world lost one country music's greatest performers and writers. Haggard originally began learning to play guitar at the age of 11, but his ...

Merle Eugene Johnson, age 89 of Nashua, died Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, at St. Luke’s Helen G. Nassif Transitional Care Center in Cedar Rapids. Funeral services will be held at noon Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, ...

The death of Merle Haggard on Wednesday marked the end of an era, or at least a piece of an era. At a moment when singers were beginning to use music as a class-conscious weapon, Haggard wielded it ...

Merle Haggard, the working man’s poet, an architect of the Bakersfield Sound and a fiercely independent artist who influenced country music like few others, died Wednesday in California, surrounded by ...