LEGENDS OF THE LONGHORN

Merle Haggard

Texas was a place that outlaws of all kinds could call home, and Merle Haggard was one of many who knew of the charming powers of the Lone Star State. 

The Country Music Hall of Fame member and two-time Grammy Award-winning artist might be known for his hits like “Mama Tried,” “Big City,” or “Pancho and Lefty,” but before becoming one of the most notable voices in country music, he spent his early adult years finding a way to stay out of trouble with the law. Haggard spent his young adulthood behind bars, famously being in the crowd at Johnny Cash’s San Quentin State Prison performance. 

In fact, after The Man in Black’s performance, it encouraged the troubled Merle Haggard to earn his high school diploma, walk a straighter and narrower path, and focus on country music 

Haggard would return to his outlaw ways a little over a decade into his music career when he first played a Dallas venue that rejected convention in favor of independence and authenticity - the Longhorn Ballroom.

Haggard played the ballroom multiple times throughout his career, and even recorded a live album, ‘In Concert at Dewey Groom's Longhorn Ballroom Dallas, Texas,’ in 1982 with his band The Strangers.