Merle Haggard passed away on his birthday in 2016 and left behind an immortal legacy. Over the course of his career, Haggard released more than 60 albums and wrote many of the songs on those albums. He launched 38 singles to the top of the charts. More importantly, he helped to popularize the Bakersfield Sound and inspired generations of country artists.
Just four years after making his debut with the 1962 single “Singin’ My Heart Out,” Haggard found his first No. 1 single with “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive.” Penned by Liz and Casey Anderson, the outlaw ballad sounds like it could have been pulled from Haggard’s early days before he walked away from a life of crime and prison sentences. More than just a hit single, the song went on to be a fan favorite. Watch him perform the song by request during an appearance on Austin City Limits in 1978 below.
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In the video, he asks for requests and someone quickly shouts, “The Fugitive.” Haggard was happy to oblige. “Alright, we’ll go into what is known as our prison segment,” he joked. The segment, he said, “Is especially for all the shut-in friends over at the county jail.”
Merle Haggard Was on a Hot Streak in the ‘70s
Merle Haggard released some of his biggest hits in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. He closed out the ‘60s with “Okie from Muscogee” and went into the new decade with “The Fightin’ Side of Me.” Both songs were No. 1 hits. Both songs were also title tracks from albums that topped the Billboard Country Albums chart.
Later in the decade, Haggard released timeless hits like “Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man),” “If We Make It Through December,” and “Ramblin’ Fever” among others. It was with this momentum behind him that he stepped onto the Austin City Limits stage for the first time in January 1978.
Thirty years after Haggard and the Strangers took the stage that night, the recording became an album. Live from Austin, Texas ’78 dropped in 2008, two years after the release of Live from Austin, TX ’85 which captured a later ACL performance.
Featured Image by Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock
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