Merle Hazard

Merle Hazard, born Jon 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 dual-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."

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,” which he performed in rented cowboy duds. The song spread on YouTube and 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." Later in 2007, Hazard released a song called "In The Hamptons," which featured a cameo by Arthur Laffer, the former Reagan advisor who created the Laffer curve. Since Hazard's initial success, he has released several songs per year, most of which deal with economics and other academic themes. "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. Hazard's 2019 song "(Gimme Some of That) Ol' Atonal Music," which explores music theory and atonality, 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."

Jon Shayne works as a money manager at Shayne & Co., LLC in Nashville, Tennessee, which he opened in 1995. The boutique investment firm managed $120 million as of 2007. He is married to Ann Shayne, a writer, with whom he has two sons.