Merle Haggard Slams The “Boogie Boogie Wham-Bam” in Country

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Call it Bro-Country, call it just plain bad, but Merle Haggard apparently prefers to call the puss oozing from the open sore that is modern-day radio country “Boogie Boogie Wham-Bam.” And hey, he’s Merle freaking Haggard, so he can call it whatever the hell he wants.

While speaking with David Menconi of Chapel Hill’s News Observer ahead of his show at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Memorial Hall Saturday night, when asked if he listens to much modern country, Merle Haggard said:

“I’ve gotta be honest, I don’t really listen to the radio at all anymore. Once in a while, I’ll scan it and I don’t understand what they’re doing. I can’t find the entertainment in it. I know these guys, occasionally play shows with them and they’re all good people. But I wonder if that record they’re making is something they can actually do. Too much boogie boogie wham-bam and not enough substance. It’s all the same musicians, too, probably eight to ten musicians play on every record you hear. For a musician hearing things that way, you can tell when a certain guitarist is playing. I know more about the musicians than the artists, actually.”

It’s all the same eight to ten songwriters too, and this is one of the many reasons most modern-day radio country sounds the same. Merle’s observation that I wonder if that record they’re making is something they can actually do” is similar to Tom Petty’s recent observations about modern music and the infiltration of electronic elements when he said, “You put your name on it, but you didn’t do that.

Though Merle says the “lack of radio play for the new stuff makes it difficult,” he is still working on new music, and has multiple projects planned.

“We’ve got four different album projects that are all almost finished, and we’ll bring them out in continuity … You know, if they put on a new song of mine, they’ve gotta take off ‘Mama Tried.’ So I’m kind of fighting myself on new releases.”

Merle has also been rumored to be a part of a “Three Musketeers” project with Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson.

Merle is not known for being as outspoken about the direction of country music as some of his elder country peers, but he has been known to get heated in the past. In one legendary moment, he told CBS Records executive Rick Blackburn, “Who do you think you are? You’re the son-of-a-bitch that sat at that desk over there and fired Johnny Cash. Let it go down in history that you’re the dumbest son-of-a-bitch I’ve ever met.”

READ: 10 Badass Merle Haggard Moments

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/08/21/4086524_merle-haggard-wont-back-down.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/08/21/4086524_merle-haggard-wont-back-down.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/08/21/4086524_merle-haggard-wont-back-down.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
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