A country music legend is coming to the Roanoke Valley in October. Merle Haggard is scheduled to perform at the Salem Civic Center October 27. Haggard has played several times in Salem, but this will be his first appearance there in ten years. Tickets go on sale Monday, May 6 at 10:00 am.
(Continue reading for the full Salem Civic Center news release.)
Country Music Hall of Fame member, Merle Haggard, is coming back to Salem this fall, making his first appearance at the Salem Civic Center in a decade. The California native, who has 39 Number One Country hits to his credit, will take the stage on Sunday, October 27, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the show go on sale Monday, May 6, at 10 a.m.
“The living legends of country music are few and far between and to have Merle Haggard back in Salem is great news for us and his many fans,” says Carey Harveycutter, Salem’s Director of Civic Facilities. “His popularity began to rise about the same time this Civic Center opened in 1968 and he’s put on a number of great shows here over the years.”
Now 76-years-old, Haggard last appeared at the Salem Civic Center in May of 2003. Since then, his life has mirrored the highs and lows of one of his country classics as he’s battled lung cancer and received one of the Kennedy Center’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement awards for his outstanding contribution to American culture.
Haggard has been singing, writing, playing and producing music for more than 50 years and his success has been rivaled only by his outspokenness. Whether it’s social injustice or the direction of modern “country” music, Merle Haggard always tells it like it is in both word and song.
