'American Masters' sings an anthem to Merle Haggard

THE SHOW "Merle Haggard: Learning to Live With Myself" on "American Masters"

WHEN | WHERE Wednesday night at 9 on WNET/13

WHAT IT'S ABOUT The trail pretty much ended for the Western migration of dirt farmers from Oklahoma - the Depression's "Okies" - in Bakersfield, Calif., where Haggard was born in 1937. His father worked on the railroad, even built Merle's first home out of a railroad car, then died when he was 9. The loss devastated the boy, but also helped establish a big part of the country music songbook. His sister, Lillian Rea Hoge, captured the life of Haggard as perhaps only a sister can, with this observation: "His world had been destroyed, and he couldn't find another world that satisfied him."

But he would try. A runaway and youthful offender, he escaped juvenile detention centers, ultimately landing in San Quentin, where he saw Johnny Cash command the stage in front of 4,000 inmates. At that point, "I started to think about that than how to do something wrong." He got out in 1960, and - with a little help from wives, musicians and his band, The Strangers - popularized the "Bakersfield Sound," a drawling, bluesy, Fender-Telecaster-dominated style (in sharp contrast to the pop-dominated Nashville sound of the '60s).

A long string of hits came, including 1969's "Okie From Muskogee," which became something of an anthem for the Silent Majority during the Vietnam War.

MY SAY Usually given to praising newspaper work, the Pulitzer Prize board drifted off the reservation this past spring to give a special award to long-gone Hank Williams. They cited his "craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life." One wonders whether they really meant to give this to Merle Haggard, still among the living. Poignancy. Simplicity. Transformation of country music. Much else is said about Haggard - and said with forthright elegance and clarity - on "Learning to Live With Myself."

BOTTOM LINE Even if country music leaves you cold, this profile will thaw you out. A beautiful and soulful portrait, with superb commentary.

GRADE A+