Merle Haggard - "No Hard Time Blues"

Merle Haggard - Hard Time Blues (Live The Johnny Cash TV Show 1969) Writer(s): JIMMIE RODGERS.
Album: Same Train, A Different Time
Utgitt: 1969
Label: Capitol Records ‎– ST 21377

Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.

Haggard was born in Oildale, California, during the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled after the death of his father, and he was incarcerated several times in his youth. After being released from San Quentin State Prison in 1960, he managed to turn his life around and launch a successful country music career, gaining popularity with his songs about the working class that occasionally contained themes contrary to the prevailing anti-Vietnam War sentiment of much popular music of the time. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, he had 38 number-one hits on the US country charts, several of which also made the Billboard all-genre singles chart. Haggard continued to release successful albums into the 2000s.

He received many honors and awards for his music, including a Kennedy Center Honor (2010), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), a BMI Icon Award (2006), and induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), Country Music Hall of Fame (1994) and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame (1997). He died on April 6, 2016 — his 79th birthday — at his ranch in Shasta County, California, having recently suffered from double pneumonia.

Haggard's last recording, a song called "Kern River Blues," described his departure from Bakersfield in the late 1970s and his displeasure with politicians. The song was recorded February 9, 2016, and features his son Ben on guitar. This record was released on May 12, 2016

Lyrics:
I got a barrel of flour Lord I got a bucket of lard
I got a barrel of flour Lord I got a bucket of lard
I ain't got no blues got chickens in my backyard.

Got corn in my crib cotton growin' in my patch
I got corn in my crib cotton growin' in my patch
I got that old hen a sittin' waitin' for that old hen to hatch
Yodel lyee-oh hard time blues.

I'm gonna hitch up my mule and take a holt of my line
I'm gonna hitch up my mule and take a holt of my line
I can't be bothered with all those old hard times.

Oh, go ahead and pick one now.

I'm gonna build me a shanty Lord I'm gonna settle down
I'm gonna build me a shanty Lord I'm gonna settle down
Get me a corn fed mama and Lordy quit a runnin round.

Here he comes.

I can make more money with my pick and plow
I can make more money with my pick and plow
With my one-eyed mule and my good ole Jersey cow.

Yodel lyee-oh hard time blues...