In the winter of 2016, Merle Haggard was sick. Pneumonia had put him in the hospital again and again, and his doctors wanted him off the road. He listened, at least about the touring. But he never stopped making music. On February 9, 2016, he walked across the road from his house to his own studio and recorded one last song.
Two months later, on April 6, 2016, his 79th birthday, Merle Haggard passed away. The song he left behind was called “Kern River Blues,” and it was his farewell to the town that made him.
Told to Rest, He Kept Writing
In the final months of his life, Merle Haggard was forced to cancel tour dates as he battled double pneumonia. He spent a great deal of that time in the hospital. Even there, lying in a hospital bed, he kept doing what he had done his whole life. He wrote songs.
When it was suggested that he stay home and rest instead of going back on the road, he agreed. His home was a ranch in Shasta County, in Northern California. And right across the road from his house sat his own recording studio, known simply as the Hag studio.
February 9, 2016
On that February day, Merle Haggard walked across to the studio with a handful of new songs he had written while he was sick. He was barely strong enough to sing, but he gathered his band and recorded anyway.
His son Ben Haggard played electric guitar on the session. Longtime band members were there too, including Scott Joss on acoustic guitar and Doug Colosio on bass. The last song Merle Haggard ever recorded was “Kern River Blues,” set to a shuffling blues rhythm in the style of Jimmie Rodgers, one of his earliest heroes.
There is something fitting in the picture. A father who had spent more than fifty years making records, too sick to tour, singing one more time with his son playing right beside him.
“Kern River Blues”: A Goodbye to Bakersfield
The Kern River runs through Bakersfield, California, the town where Merle Haggard grew up and where his career began. According to his official website, “Kern River Blues” is about his memories of leaving Bakersfield behind in the late 1970s.
The song is full of his own life. It nods to his birthplace and to the converted boxcar his father turned into the family home. It takes a few hard swipes at politicians and at the idea that things keep getting better, suggesting that the blues people felt in the 1930s are the same blues people feel today. It also mourns a river that once ran deep and wide but was drained away.
The final verse is the one that stops listeners cold. In it, Merle Haggard sings about leaving town for good and saying farewell to the old boxcar, then admits that the river where he once poured out all his sorrows has gone dry. Heard after his death, it sounds less like a memory of moving away and more like a man quietly saying goodbye to everything.
It was not the first time he had written about that river. His 1985 song “Kern River” became a Top 10 country hit. Three decades later, he came back to the same water for his very last recording.
April 6, 2016
Merle Haggard died at his ranch on April 6, 2016, the same day he was born in 1937. He was 79. The man who had gone from San Quentin State Prison to the Country Music Hall of Fame, with dozens of No. 1 hits along the way, was gone.
Tributes poured in from across the music world. On SiriusXM, Willie Nelson’s channel, Willie’s Roadhouse, was temporarily renamed Merle’s Roadhouse for the weekend following his death. Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard had been friends and recording partners for decades.
A Thank-You to the Fans
The Haggard family was deeply moved by the response from fans. In a statement, the family said they had received a tremendous outpouring of love and prayers for Merle and were forever grateful.
They decided the best way to say thank you was to share his final song. On May 12, 2016, host Dallas Wayne premiered “Kern River Blues” on Willie’s Roadhouse, the same channel that had carried Merle’s name just weeks before. Afterward, the song became available to download, and the family pledged ten percent of all gross proceeds to charities for the homeless.
“Kern River Blues” is the last song Merle Haggard recorded, though it is far from the last one fans may hear. He once said there were between 300 and 400 unreleased songs sitting in his archive.
Have you heard “Kern River Blues”? Does it feel like a goodbye to you?