Merle Haggard, a son of Bakersfield, sang the blues for the river that once flowed through his hometown, but now mostly runs bone dry.
His “Kern River Blues” lyrics echo the core grievance of the plaintiffs’ opening brief in a developing state Supreme Court showdown over the empty watercourse’s future: That corporate agricultural needs have come to overbalance the public’s interest in a healthy environment.
Haggard sang, “Well, they used to hav…