Merle Hazard (born Jonathan A. Shayne) is an American satirist known for penning and performing country songs about unconventional topics, including economics, atonal music, and physics. Shayne started releasing music as Merle Hazard in 2007, his stage name a pun on the economic phenomenon moral hazard and the country singer Merle Haggard. In 2009, the Nashville Business Journal dubbed him "the 'Weird Al' of Wall Street."[2]
Career
In the summer of 2007, Hazard gained internet fame for his first single, "H-E-D-G-E," a song about uninsured loss inspired by Tammy Wynette's 1968 single “D-I-V-O-R-C-E.”[3] The song's homemade music video, which featured Hazard in rented cowboy duds, spread on YouTube and various financial blogs. In November 2007, The New York Times called it "the only country song about the subprime meltdown and its effects on the global credit markets."[4][3]
"I like poking fun at the Fed in my songs, but actually, I respect them and think they have a nearly impossible job," Hazard told Axios in 2021.[12]
In 2019, Hazard released "(Gimme Some of That) Ol' Atonal Music," which explores music theory and atonality in its lyrics.[13]New Yorker music critic Alex Ross dubbed it "song of the year."[14] The single features Grammy-winning bluegrass musician Alison Brown as banjo soloist and producer; The Washington Post has referred to Brown as "one of the leading five-string banjo players in the country."[13]
Personal life
Shayne's father was an advertising executive and businessman who did not write music, although he did sing with Tom Lehrer during graduate school.[13] Shayne studied philosophy at Harvard College where he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon with Conan O'Brien.[4] Shayne took a year off from his undergraduate studies to enroll in extension-division courses at the Mannes School of Music in New York; he also played in a pop band called "The Young Nashvillians."[13] He later received a Juris Doctor degree from Vanderbilt University.[3]
Shayne works as a money manager at Shayne & Co., LLC in Nashville, Tennessee, which he opened in 1995.[15] The boutique investment firm managed $120 million as of 2007.[3] He is married to Ann Shayne, a writer, with whom he has two sons.[13]
