Merle Haggard, Ramblin' Fever

Embroidery stitched directly through a vinyl record sleeve.

12x12x2 inches, framed in acrylic.

     Ramblin' Fever was Merle Haggard’s 22nd album and it was released in 1977. Growing up in the shadow of NYC in the 1970’s, country music was never really on my radar. I had heard of Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, caught a few episodes of Hee Haw, watched the Dukes of Hazard, and that’s about it. It wasn’t until I was well into my 20’s that I really started to listen to country music. Garth Brooks and that whole 90’s wave of country music kind of pushed me to listen to the older, traditional country music. This is when I discovered Merle, Waylon, Dwight Yoakam, Buck Owens and of course Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. Ramblin' Fever features a candid headshot of Merle over a serene blue background wearing a cowboy hat. I decided to use wool thread for the whole album. I stitched the background in geometric lines of blue and his face and hair in over 50 colors of hand placed free motion embroidery stitches. The logo and album title were stitched as a patch and affixed to the album as a final step.