Merle Haggard knows all about hard living, uncertain love and workers ground down by depressing jobs. As one of country music's greatest living singer-songwriters, Mr. Haggard in the 1960s was an architect of the Bakersfield sound—an earthy, California-born style that was more firmly rooted in country's traditions than the polished productions recorded in Nashville at the time.

Mr. Haggard—who will perform Sunday at the Grammy Awards—grew up in Bakersfield but soon ran afoul of the law in the 1950s, landing in prison after...