On February 9, 2016, Merle Haggard walked out of his house, crossed the road and went into his own studio. His son Ben Haggard picked up an electric guitar and stood beside him. The song they recorded that day was “Kern River Blues.” Neither of them could have known it, but it would be the last song Merle Haggard ever recorded.
A Hard Winter
The winter of 2015 nearly finished Merle Haggard. In December he canceled a run of shows and checked into a hospital in California, where he learned he had double pneumonia. He later said it was Jackie Autry, the widow of Gene Autry, who convinced him to go in.
A few weeks later he called in to Willie Nelson’s SiriusXM channel, Willie’s Roadhouse, to thank the fans who had been praying for him. He spoke as plainly as he always had:
“I guess I was nearly dead.”
He even laughed a little when he said it. That was Merle Haggard. He had come through prison, poverty and five decades on the road, and he wasn’t going to dress up bad news.
Songs From a Hospital Room
The illness slowed his body, but Merle Haggard kept writing. During those hospital stays he wrote new songs. Once he was home, he was advised not to go back out on the road. So he stayed home, and he kept walking across the road to his studio to record the songs he had written.
One of those songs looked back on leaving Bakersfield, California, in the late 1970s. It was a shuffling, old-time blues in the style of Jimmie Rodgers, one of the singers Merle Haggard had loved since he was a boy. The song compares the hard times of the 1930s with the hard times of today. It mourns how the land around Bakersfield had changed, points a finger at the politicians who let it happen, and ends with a goodbye to the town.
In the studio that day, Ben Haggard played electric guitar. The band around them was made up of musicians who had played with Merle Haggard for years, including Scott Joss on acoustic guitar and Norm Hamlet on steel guitar.
The River He Had Sung About Before
The Kern River was not new territory for Merle Haggard. He grew up in Oildale, just across the river from Bakersfield. In 1985 he released a song called “Kern River,” and it became a Top 10 country hit. In that ballad, the singer loses his best friend to the river and swears he will never swim in it again.
More than thirty years later, Merle Haggard came back to the same river for his final recording. This time the fear was gone. What was left was a river that had run dry and a town he was leaving behind. The two songs belong together, written by the same man thirty-one years apart.
Fifty-Seven Days
His health never fully came back. In early March 2016, Merle Haggard was hospitalized again, and more concerts were canceled. On April 6, 2016, fifty-seven days after that session with his son, Merle Haggard died. It was his 79th birthday.
A Thank-You to the Fans
After his death, the Haggard family was moved by how many fans had prayed for him and sent their love. The family said it was “forever grateful” and wanted to find a way to say thank you. They chose the last song he recorded.
On May 12, 2016, “Kern River Blues” premiered on Willie’s Roadhouse, the same SiriusXM channel Merle Haggard had called from the hospital just months before. Ten percent of the proceeds from the song went to homeless charities.
Why It Still Matters
“Kern River Blues” was never made to chase the charts. It was made by a man who had just come through a terrible winter, who still had something to say, and who crossed his own road to say it. His son played guitar beside him. Merle Haggard went back to the river where his story started.
Merle Haggard recorded hundreds of songs over a career that lasted more than fifty years. “Kern River Blues” was the last of them, and it ends with him heading out of town.