Photos by Nathan Poppe
“I’m really intrigued how Woody and Merle Haggard created such a wide spectrum as native Sooners. You’ve got Merle, who was never from Oklahoma, and Woody, who left Oklahoma as soon as he could. So one represents a walking on ‘The Fightin’ Side Of Me’ mentality and the other one a ‘This Land Was Made For You and Me’ kinda mentality. They’re both coming from this really rich place, and they’re both champions of this rich place. … They’re both managing to speak to the working man with a very different dialect.”
That’s OCMS frontman Ketch Secor talking to me on his tour bus during Muskogee’s G Fest. He was kind enough to invite me backstage to chat about his memories of the late Merle Haggard.a
Here’s some more highlights from our chat.
