Willie Nelson’s Tribute to—Great Friend and Cohort—Merle Haggard

HOWDY, Y’ALL!

A FINE AND BLESSED day it is (as always)! And I feel that it is a better time as any to feature another song written by Our Dear Willie.  A song he wrote for one of his closest of friends, the late great Merle Haggard.

 “Got the news this morning
It would be a tough day
Some are so much larger than life
Can’t believe they could pass away
When it comes to country music he’s the world
And it wouldn’t be all it is without Merle…”

BEING THE exceptional Storyteller and exquisite Weaver of Words that he is, Willie Nelson—by way of He Won’t Ever Be Gone—tells it the way it is:

OF WHAT AND WHO Merle Haggard was as a man. Of how Merle was as a loyal comrade and formidable cohort. And Merle Haggard, THE MAN…

“OF WHAT AND WHO Merle Haggard was as a man…”

But he won’t ever be gone
His songs live on
A Fugitive and a Branded Man
Mama Tried to understand
Left us a lifetime of songs
And he won’t ever be gone

“Of how Merle was as a loyal comrade and formidable cohort…”

We were friends right from the start
And we shared some high times
I would sing some songs he wrote
He would sing a few of my own
Music made us brothers ’til the end
But not a day goes by that I don’t miss him

“And Merle Haggard, THE MAN…”

He won’t ever be gone
His songs live on
Ramblin’ Fever and The Way I Am
Blue collar blues for the working man
We’ll be singin’ him back home from now on
And he won’t ever be gone

GOD BLESS WONDERFUL FRIENDS…

GOD BLESS GREAT MEN…

GOD BLESS WILLIE AND MERLE…

This is Our Kind of Country, and

“MAY THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY BLESS US ALL AND SET US FREE!