Having finished a three-month tour in November, Merle Haggard [ tickets ] will return to the road in February. Dates are currently scheduled through June, and hit most of the U.S.

With the success of last year's "If I Could Only Fly," released on punk label Epitaph's Anti imprint, one assumes that Haggard has acquired a new generation of fans. However, where his contemporary Johnny Cash followed a similar success in the mid-90s with shows at rock venues and theaters, Haggard's casino-laden itinerary suggests that he is not going out of his way to seek these new fans.

Prior to signing with Epitaph, Haggard released two CDs on his own, without a label deal. As he told the L.A. Weekly, "...what we're findin' out is, everybody since Gene Autry--including Bing Crosby and Bob Wills, all the people who pioneered modern recorded music--they never got paid! And people are still not gettin' paid. And I started realizin' it ..."

A popular choice of critics' year-end lists, "If I Could Only Fly" has spent 14 weeks on Billboard's Top Country Albums and Top Independent Albums charts, where it's No. 35 and No. 26, respectively.

A Feb. 7 show at Player's Casino in Metropolis, Ill., is not listed on the itinerary below, but is listed on Pollstar's itinerary. According to a casino spokesperson, the show is a semi-private party for regular patrons who have met certain unspecified requirements. The casino is not advertising the show.