Merle Haggard Cargile Merle Haggard Ill Never Swim Kern River Again
Merle Haggard
Credit: billboard.com
Locals call information technology the Killer Kern. The Kern River, nestled in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfield, California, takes lives every twelvemonth. A warning sign at the rima oris of Kern Coulee reads: "Danger. Stay Out. Stay Alive" and tallies the number of lives the river has taken since 1968. As of May 2020, the number was 307. In fact, the river was named in 1845 by U.S. Senator John C. Fremont in laurels of Edward K. Kern, who, as the story goes, nearly drowned in the turbulent waters.
Legendary state guitar actor Merle Haggard's tune "Kern River" tells the fictitious tale of the singer's girlfriend drowning in the Kern. Released in July 1985 as the only single and the championship runway from his album Kern River, the song is written from the perspective of an old homo looking back on his life and reflecting on the Kern River of his youth. "I'll never swim Kern River again" goes the refrain. "It was there I first met her / It was there that I lost my best friend."
The Kern River
Credit: sierranevadageotourism.com
Merle Haggard was function of the contingent of land guitar players, along with Buck Owens, who created the subgenre of country music known as the "Bakersfield Audio" — a mix of twangy guitars, drums, fiddle and steel guitars. Bakersfield, a charter city in Kern County, California, is universally recognized equally the "Country Music Uppercase of The West."
Haggard was born in Oildale, California, a town 3.5 miles northwest of Bakersfield, during the Great Low. After the decease of his father, Haggard's childhood was troubled, and he was incarcerated several times while growing up. After beingness released from San Quentin Country Prison in 1960, Haggard launched a successful career as a country artist, with eight No. 1 hits on the U.S. state charts.
In 2008, Emmylou Harris recorded a version of "Kern River" that appears on her album "All I Intended to Be." Harris, a die-hard fan of Merle Haggard, said of the songwriter:
"If you had to choice ane artist to stand for country music and send it into outer space to permit people out in that location in other galaxies know what y'all mean by state music, I call back you could drop a needle on anything Merle has ever done and get a pretty good representation."
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Source: https://blog.sevenponds.com/expressive-music/kern-river-by-merle-haggard
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