Merle Haggard To Be Honored At 2014 ACM Awards

It has been announced that Merle Haggard will be honored with the Crystal Milestone award at this year's ACM Awards, broadcast live from Vegas on April 6.

Previous recipients include Jason Aldean, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Nettles, Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks and Gayle Holcomb.

This follows the April 1 release of Broken Bow Records' Working Man's Poet: A Tribute to Merle Haggard, with new interpretations of old Haggard songs from Jason Aldean, Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Toby Keith, Jake Owen, Randy Houser, Joe Nichols, Dustin Lynch, Thompson Square, Parmalee, James Wesley, Kristy Lee Cook and Merle's son Ben Haggard.

It's been a big year for Merle love, with 90's country singer/songwriter Suzy Bogguss releasing a new album entirely of covers of Haggard hits, simply from a woman's point of view. In addition, an anniversary double-disc edition of Merle's classic, out-of-print albums Fightin' Side of Me and Okie From Muskogee is set to be released on March 25.