BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — In 1985, Merle Haggard wrote a love song to something very close to his heart: A place, not a person, that gave him peace, comfort and strength. The Kern River.

In 2016, he wrote another song, framed around that same beloved river. It was his last completed song, recorded 57 days before he died on April 6, 2016, his 79th birthday.

It was a tribute to the life-affirming cascade that has sustained the southern Central Valley for centuries. “Kern River Blues,” he called it. Except the Kern River, in his longing requiem, is dry.

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Members of Bring Back the Kern share that longing. The mission of the Bakersfield-based nonprofit: Do something about that often-dry riverbed. Their idea — get some of Bakersfield’s best known music stars from a variety of genres — pop, rock, soul, jazz, country, R&B, and Mariachi — to record their take on Haggard’s wistful ode, and see what it does to bolster public opinion and touch the hearts of those who control the river’s flow.

Brian Boozer, owner and lead engineer of Aum Studio, a Bakersfield recording studio, donated hundreds of hours of studio and logistical time to make the video.

He and other river advocates convinced Jim Ranger, Zacari, Amy Adams, Monty Byrom, Daisy Sanchez, Rudy Parris and Gregory Porter to contribute a verse from Kern River Blues.

The backing band was Soulajar, and two instrumentalists contributed solos — fiddle player Paul Cartwright, and, from Haggard’s original band, The Strangers, steel guitar player Norm Hamlet.

“I can’t remember in the history of Bakersfield there ever being a project quite like this,” said Boozer, who also plays drums for Soulajar, “where we bring so many big name artists from the town, from all different genres of music, ages, walks of life and … combine it into one great project.”

How do you cram seven stars into one snug little recording studio? You don’t.

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“It’s impossible to get everybody in the same room on the same day,” Boozer said, “so we did kind of piece it together.”

They did it one-at-a-time, over more than two years.

Another challenge: How to preserve Haggard’s poetry and intent — in which the Kern River is a metaphor — into a song in which it’s a very real body of water?

“The whole entire song really is a lament,” Boozer said. “And that was the challenge of re-creating the song — (It) was keeping with the feeling … but also trying to raise awareness and bring some hope to potentially be able to solve the problem.”

The project required participation of a sort from one other vital ally — Haggard’s widow, Theresa Haggard, who lives near Redding.

Communication breakdowns, performers’ packed schedules and two years of pandemic delays stretched this into a four-year project but those issues seem to have cleared up, and Mrs. Haggard has given the project her blessing.

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“I love the Kern River,” she wrote in a series of text messages to KGET. “Merle showed me how special it was … This group trying to stop the diversion (of the Kern River) — I pray they can, but it’s like fighting city hall.”

“I am for the ones who can fight them. I am for joining the fight. I’m in all the way. That’s why he wrote the song — his last song to be recorded,” she wrote.

Can some of Merle Haggard’s last words, delivered by way of new, passionate voices, make an impression on the right people? That remains to be seen. But we know this — it’s good to hear an old friend dispensing a little poetic wisdom.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17.