Ben Haggard In Concert
For some musicians, growing up with a famous parent can be a challenge while trying to make one's own way. But for Ben Haggard, being the son of country legend Merle Haggard has put him on a musical mission. Nobody ever had a better education than Ben in the way Merle worked — he toured with his father for eight years as a guitarist in Merle's esteemed backing band, The Strangers, and recorded with him on such albums as 2010's I Am What I Am and 2011's Working in Tennessee. Working so closely with his father for all that time ended up putting Ben in the perfect position to carry the torch of Merle's music. The Hag left us in 2016, but before that he encouraged his son to stay on the road leading The Strangers after the elder Haggard's passing. Fortunately for country music fans, Ben heeded that advice.
In the wake of Merle's death, Ben, along with his brother Noel, began fronting The Strangers in concert just as his dad had suggested. By doing so, Ben has ensured that the raw, real, honky-tonking Bakersfield sound Merle pioneered in the 1960s will remain very present on the contemporary music scene. One of the best things about Ben's delivery of his father's songs is that he bears the unmistakable influence while still very much maintaining his own identity. When he tackles tunes from the canon like "Sing Me Back Home," "Mama Tried," "Are the Good Times Really Over," and "If I Could Only Fly," you can hear the elder Merle's influence. But there's just as much pure Ben coming through, too. And the same holds true when he picks out a solo on the guitar he inherited from Merle.