Truck Driver Songs: Merle Haggard “Truck Drivers Blues”

Here we go with another Truck Driver Song. It’s where we look back at all the great musical tributes to the North American Truck Driver. They love you and so do we.

This week, it’s a classic country ballad by one of the original outlaws, Merle Haggard. It was released in 1996, but it sounds like it may have came from the old Sun Studios of Memphis in the 60s, during the amazing era that launched Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Haggard’s guitar playing and voice gives his country a hard-edged, blues-like style in many cuts. Although he has been outspoken in his dislike for modern country music, he has praised George Strait, Toby Keith and Alan Jackson.

Haggard is certainly one of the genre’s most versatile artists. His repertory ranges wide: aching ballads to sly, frisky narratives and even semi-autobiographical reflections. He can even do full sets of drinking songs that are jukebox, cover-band, and closing-time standards. He continues to perform to this day, on the punk label Epitaph, out of Los Angeles.

Enjoy, truck drivers!