Marty Haggard: A Tribute to My Dad at the Greenville Municipal Auditorium

The show

Marty Haggard grew up in Bakersfield, California, traveling with his father and watching one of country music's defining artists work. From 1983 to 1985 he toured with Merle Haggard, playing guitar and singing harmony in the band, and that road time turned into a tribute show he has carried across the United States, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, and England ever since. The show pairs Merle's biggest hits and deepest cuts with Marty's own stories from the road, a personal, family-grounded telling of the Haggard catalog. For a country audience in Northeast Texas, this one carries real weight.

The French Family Band

The backing band for the tour is the French Family Band, a family trio of Australian-born musicians Stuie, Camille, and Sonny French who now make their home in Nashville. They play classic country, Western swing, and Americana, and they have the credentials to hold down a tribute of this size: Golden Guitar Award winners, a Grand Ole Opry debut in 2023, and a sound that sits naturally behind the Haggard songs.

Merle Haggard's legacy

The Country Music Hall of Fame counts Merle Haggard, with the arguable exception of Hank Williams, the single most influential singer-songwriter in country music history, an artist who moved easily through honky-tonk, blues, jazz, pop, and folk with his longtime band, the Strangers. A tribute to that catalog in a mid-century auditorium is exactly the kind of special booking that makes the drive across the region worthwhile.

The drive from the property

Greenville is about an hour from 1786 County Road 1070 down US-67 and I-30, a longer drive than the Mount Pleasant and Mount Vernon options but well worth it for a show like this. The Greenville Municipal Auditorium is a historic downtown theater that books a steady mix of tributes, touring music, and community productions through its Showtime at the GMA series.