Bonnaroo Photos: Merle Haggard, Day 4

Full Bonnaroo Photo Gallery Merle Haggard on stage at Bonnaroo, June 14, 2009. Photo by David McClister/Billboard.com.

Haggard Set Impresses Sunday At Bonnaroo

Country music legend Merle Haggard took the stage at This Tent Sunday afternoon (June 14) with an eight-piece band that worked its way through a number of the performer’s classic hits. The 72-year-old Haggard, who had surgery last Fall to remove lung cancer, seemed sound as ever, leading his group (replete with steel guitar, saxophone and fiddle) through the likes of opener “Workin’ Man Blues,” “Set Me Free,” "Okie From Muskogee," the barroom lament “I Think I’ll Just Sit Here and Drink” and a stately version of “Folsom Prison Blues.”

Haggard’s teenage son Ben carried on the apparent new Bonnaroo tradition of kids playing with their legendary parents’ bands. After seeing Jay Weinberg and Evan Springsteen on the main stage last night, here was young Ben Haggard playing alongside musicians some 50 years his senior. And hanging with them, I might add, though the elder Hag was clearly the focus of the gritty-yet-graceful performance. --Troy Carpenter