Merle Haggard died Wednesday, on his birthday, at the age of 79. I immediately thought of his 2000 album, If I Could Only Fly, which was released through Anti-, an indie label that reintroduced legendary artists like Haggard, Tom Waits and Solomon Burke to a younger, hipper crowd. The title track, written by Blaze Foley, is one of the great missing-you songs: The narrator feels lost and alone, and he just wants to get back to his baby. "If I Could Only Fly" has always killed me -- with the news of Haggard's death, it kills a little more.
