A few months ago, I told a friend that maybe this whole Trump mess started with two Merle Haggard songs. One was "The Fightin' Side of Me," and the other was "Okie from Muskogee," both anthems of a ...

On this day (December 9) in 1968, Merle Haggard stepped into Capitol Recording Studios in Los Angeles to cut a handful of songs for his next album. Among the list of cuts for the day was “Hungry Eyes.

Before “Okie From Muskogee” became his signature song and before “If We Make It Through December” became his biggest crossover hit, Merle Haggard’s best-known song was the one where he came clean ...