We here at Whiskey Riff often wonder what Jolene had to look like for Dolly Parton to be worried about her stealing her man. Dolly has, across decades, been an icon that women and men adore. She’s ...

Pop! Goes the Country was a weekly show that let audiences across the nation see country stars and up-and-comers perform. Additionally, the show featured interviews with those artists. As the title ...

Merle Haggard was an escape artist. The future country music legend broke out of juvenile hall and prison 17 times by his own count as a teenager and young man. But his greatest escape was getting out ...

At 73, two years removed from lung surgery, and two months from a related chest infection, Merle Haggard should be at home recuperating on his idyllic 189-acre ranch near California’s ...

In an interview with the Tennessean promoting his album Where Have You Been, Alan Jackson told the story about Merle Haggard and his mother’s homemade lemon pie. On some arbitrary night, Merle Haggard ...

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli. This week marks the 40th anniversary of Farm Aid, the country music concert founded by Willie Nelson as a fundraiser to benefit farmers. Held in Champaign, ...

Hailed as "the Poet of the Common Man," there's no question that the late Merle Haggard's reputation as one of the most important singer-songwriters in country music was well-deserved. Now, nearly ten ...

There’s something perverse about watching a man in pain sing some of the most beautiful songs ever written, which is how I spent two nights in November 2010, chasing Merle Haggard’s bus down ...