Best wishes to Merle Haggard, born April 7, 1937, in Bakersfield, California.
Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Jamie Johnson, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Raphael, and others pay tribute to Merle Haggard, when he received the Kennedy Honors last month, in Washington DC.
Photo by Sayre Berman
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com
by: S. Pajot
Better Than: A cold beer, a shot of whiskey, and a good cry.
All the old outlaws are only getting older.
Last night, though, the Red-Headed Stranger and the Okie From Muskogee proved that they might be wizened gentlemanly grandaddies who sing about love, heartbreak, drinkin’, tokin’, towin’ the line, and lovin’ the lord. But they’re “still alive.” And they’re still hard as fuckin’ railroad spikes.
Two of the lone remaining country badasses still standing (and singing), Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard charmed men in Stetsons, women in pearls, and children in “I Love Willie” onesies at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida.
But hell yeah … They also joked about death while demanding that the whole world just “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.”
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| Photo by Sayre Berman |
At 7:30 p.m. sharp, Merle the Mule kicked off the show, running and rambling through a half-dozen tunes that cut straight from some latest triumphs (“If I Could Only Fly”) to rowdy midcareer brawlers (“I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”) to a string of late-’60s classics: “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “Mama Tried,” and “Today I Started Loving You Again.”
Only two weeks ago, Hag had been hospitalized with pneumonia. And he was forced to cancel a few gigs. But yesterday evening, aside from a little roughness in his voice, he seemed in solid shape, even laughing at the Reaper.
“It’s nice to be here,” Merle croakily cackled, pausing between ditties. “Well, it’s nice to be anywhere.”
“Someone called me up the other day and said, ‘I heard you had a heart attack and died,’” the bemused 75-year-old dude shook his head. “I said, ‘Nope, still alive.’
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| Photo by Sayre Berman |
By 8:54 p.m., though, it was time for the second part of the show as Willie returned and the Texas flag unfurled to the floor behind him.
Wearing a big black hat just like his pal Merle, the 79-year-old Red-Headed Stranger waded into “Whiskey River” with a wide smile on his charming, craggy face. Crooning “Still Is Still Moving to Me,” he illuminated the mysteries of being at work while being at rest. And doubling back for another boozy anthem, Willie was “singing whiskey for my men, beer for my horses” with the whole damn place on backing vocals.
Merle Haggard’s Setlist:
-”If I Could Only Fly”
-”Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Star”
-”I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”
-”The Bottle Let Me Down”
-”Mama Tried”
-”Today I Started Loving You Again”
-”Big City”
-”The Fightin’ Side of Me”
-”If We Make It Through December”
-”Folsom Prison Blues” (Johnny Cash cover)
-”Take Me Back to Tulsa” (Bob Wills cover)
-”Okie from Muskogee”
-”Pancho and Lefty” (With Willie Nelson)
Willie Nelson’s Setlist:
-”Whiskey River”
-”Still Is Still Moving to Me”
-”Beer for My Horses”
-”Good Hearted Woman”
-”Shoeshine Man”
-”Funny How Time Just Slips Away”
-”Crazy”
-”Night Life”
-”Me and Paul”
-”Call Me the Breeze” (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover by Lukas Nelson)
-”Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”
-”Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”
-”On the Road Again”
-”Always on My Mind”
-”Matchbox”
-”Texas Flood” (Stevie Ray Vaughan cover by Lukas Nelson)
-”Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” (Hank Williams cover)
-”Hey Good Lookin’” (Hank Williams cover)
-”Move It on Over” (Hank Williams cover)
-”Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” (Fred Rose/Roy Acuff/Hank Williams cover)
-”Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die”
-”I Saw the Light”
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com
by: Liz Tracy
Last month, Willie Nelson announced a bunch of Florida dates, but Broward and Palm Beach counties sadly weren’t on his mind. But guess sometime in the past month, we got in there somehow, cause the Red Headed Stranger is storming into town in a haze of pot smoke and country music and he’s bringing Merle Haggard with him. These two legends of American music are coming to Hard Rock Live on February 7, and we’re rolling mad doobies and packing old cigarette boxes full of ‘em in anticipation, right now.
In just the past year, Nelson put out three albums, including one with Wynton Marsalis and Norah Jones, Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles. His newest book not only has the best name in rock and roll or country music history, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die, but it landed on the top 10 on The New York Times best-seller list. And the other grandfather of country Merle Haggard released an album in recent years, I Am What I Am, proving, these two aren’t old, they’re seasoned. Here are a few tunes to spark you up for their arrival.
This 1982 collabo might get you crying thinking about your mama or weepy for those lonely long nights with your horse, Mary Jane, out on the range. Don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys, stoners have much more fun.
This song came from Merle’s hater days. Let’s hope he realizes South Florida is a long way away from Muskogee.
One thing Willie and Merle and their fans can agree upon, whiskey’s an acceptable form of intoxication.
But sometimes whiskey just ain’t enough, and the bottle lets ya down. Guess that’s when it’s time to pack a big beautiful bowl.
Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. 7:30 p.m., Thursday, February 7, Hard Rock Live, One Seminole Way, Hollywood. Tickets on sale at 10 a.m., Friday, January 11. Tickets are $104, $84, $64 and $49. Call 800-745-3000, or visit Ticketmaster.com.
www.nashville.com
by: jerry@nashville.com
Lukas Nelson’s been gaining praise for his musical and vocal contributions to his legendary father, Willie Nelson’s new CD, Heroes, for which he contributes to 10 of the 14 tracks, including a riveting duet with his dad on the Eddie Vedder penned Pearl Jam tune “Just Breathe.”
The Pearl Jam frontman called into Willie’s radio show, “Willie’s Roadhouse” on Sirius XM radio the week of the album’s release to chat with the Nelson family. Vedder said that he “was real excited to hear Lukas and his father perform ‘Just Breathe’” and revealed that that he’s been getting great feedback from people who love the father-son duet version of his song.
“Lukas, well, thank you for talking your dad into playing the song,” Vedder told Lukas on the show. “We did it together and singing it together with him as a duet it’s the first thing I’ve done like that with my dad, so it really took on a whole different meaning for me and him. I’ll be something I’ll have forever with him. So thank you for that,” Lukas replied.
Kris Kristofferson, who is featured on Heroes’ “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die,” and Merle Haggard, who is on “A Horse Called Music,” also called into the show to give Lukas some praise. “I sure was impressed the last time I saw Lukas. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” said Kristofferson. Haggard and Willie talked about getting all of their kids together to record. “We’ve got families full of talent, we might as well,” said Haggard.
Meanwhile, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real’s second full-length CD, Wasted, is continuing to gain steam. The Patriot Ledger in Massachusetts said that the band’s sophomore album, “rocks harder and has more mind-bending guitar solos.” Roughstock.com also recently offered up this praise: “Nelson lets out all the stops with the album’s title track, ‘Wasted,’ which finds the singer/songwriter rocking out like a party animal. He sings its words with a slight growl over a Stones-y groove.”
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com
by: Randy Lewis
Country music veteran Merle Haggard has recovered from his bout with pneumonia and other medical issues and is heading back out on tour for a string of shows beginning Feb. 28 in Tucson and continuing with stops in Southern California the following night at the Grove in Anaheim and March 1 at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego.
The 74-year-old Country Music Hall of Fame member was hospitalized last month in Macon, Ga., where he was treated for double pneumonia as well as for stomach ulcers, esophageal diverticulitis and the removal of eight polyps from his colon. He postponed seven shows.
“I’m feeling good and ready to get back on the bus,” Haggard said in a statement issued Wednesday by his spokeswoman. “Thanks to all for their powerful prayers that led to my speedy recovery. I’m rehearsing with the band and looking forward to playin’ and singin’ again.”
Haggard had part of a lung removed in 2008 after learning he had lung cancer. The cancer has been in full remission since that surgery
Willie Nelson will be featured with Merle Haggard on Merle’s new album, ”Working In Tennessee”, set to be released on October 4.
The album will include songs written by Merle, some Johnny Cash tune, and another version of “Working Man’s Blues,” which he sings with Willie and Merle’s son Ben Haggard.
Click here for free download of the title track “Working in Tennessee” here.
Track list:
Working in Tennessee (Merle Haggard)
Down on the Houseboat (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard, Doug Colosio)
Cocaine Blues (TJ Arnall)
What I Hate (Merle Haggard)
Sometimes I Dream (Merle Haggard, Jenessa Haggard)
Under the Bridge (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard)
Too Much Boogie Woogie (Merle Haggard)
Truck Driver’s Blues (Merle Haggard, Tim Howard)
Laugh It Off (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard, Doug Colosio)
Working Man Blues (Merle Haggard)
Jackson (Billy Edd Wheeler, Gaby Rodgers)
Best wishes to Merle Haggard, born 1937, in Bakersfield, California.
Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Jamie Johnson, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Raphael, and others pay tribute to Merle Haggard, when he received the Kennedy Honors last month, in Washington DC.
Willie Nelson and Sheryl Crow performed at the Kennedy Centers honors show, as part of the tribute to Merle Haggard. Show filmed earlier, aired last night. I’m looking for a video of Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Jamie Johnson singing, ‘Ramblin’ Fever’, but no luck yet. Maybe by the end of the day someone will have it up on youtube.
Kid Rock, Willie Nelson and Jamey Johnson on The 33rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors.
Country music icons Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson are working on a new supertrio project for 2011 after meeting up at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C. earlier this month (Dec10).
Haggard, who was being honoured by his two old pals at the prestigious event, admits he and Nelson were already planning a collaborative album and they wanted Kristofferson to be a part of it – but now the trio has decided to hit the studio together and form a new group.
The Okie From Muskogee singer tells RollingStone.com, “We talked about the three of us doing it. I’m sure if we’re healthy and live to do it, we’ll do it. We thought about the title: the Musketeers… because there’s the three of us.
“We’ll come up with some little way of describing ourselves, I guess, and put it together into a show.”
If the supergroup gets together, it won’t be Nelson’s first – he formed The Outlaws with Jessi Colter and Waylon Jennings in the mid-1970s. The band’s self-titled debut became the first country album to go platinum with more than one million sales.
Willie Nelson joined other artists to help honor Merle Haggard in Washinton DC last night, when he received the Kennedy Center Honors, along with Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Herman and Paul McCartney. President Obama and Mrs. Obama hosted the event.
www.theboot.com
by Pat GallagherMerle Haggard sat amongst four other talented trailblazers Sunday night, December 5, as they became the most recent recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, awarded by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
As a recipient of the 33rd annual national celebration of the arts, the 73-year-old country legend sat in the balcony of the Kennedy Center Opera House joined by composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, dancer, choreographer and director Bill T. Jones, songwriter and musician Paul McCartney and producer, television host, actress and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey as they were honored in an all-star performance by their peers. Also in attendance, President and Mrs. Barack Obama, along with Gen. and Mrs. Colin Powell.
As the lights dimmed and the performance began, the evening had a magical feel, with each honoree watching as their friends and colleagues took turns singing their praises in recognition of their respective place in the performing arts. When Merle’s tribute began, the 73-year-old was clearly moved to tears.
Country superstar Vince Gill took his place at the podium on stage to speak about Merle’s legacy. “I’m proud to be here to see my old friend — on a personal note, my lifelong favorite — Merle Haggard receive this great Kennedy Center Honor,” Vince began. “But I really don’t know what to say. Merle has already revealed everything we need to know about the man. It’s all in his songs. What can I add? I can say that I admire how he writes for all of those who lack voices of their own: society’s forgotten or pushed aside. He captures their dignity as they struggle to make ends meet as drifters, factory workers, farmhands, fathers, sons and prisoners-and as they fight the demons we all know.
“His writing is not glamorous; just real,” Vince continued. “Hag tells it like it is. He’s the ‘Poet of the Common Man’. Through words and music, he tells his life story, which is, in many ways, America’s story — a quest for the simple things: a decent job, self-respect, a place to call home. And one common thread through all of it … is truth.”
“This is already more spoken words than you’d hear in a year of Merle Haggard concerts,” Vince added, eliciting laughter from the audience. “I know what Merle is thinking right now … he’s thinking, ‘Vince, shut the hell up and get to the music.’ I’m almost there, Hag. I look up and see this fellow Okie sitting with the President and the First Lady and the others, and all these people here tonight honoring you, and I’m thinking, ‘Well, sometimes we get it right. We sure got it right tonight.’”
Each recipient enjoyed a video presentation that covered their humble beginnings and spotlighted their many professional accomplishments. Willie Nelson narrated Merle’s biography, as a drop-down video screen revealed photos and video of Merle’s life from childhood to present, explaining how his family had traveled west from Oklahoma, driven out of the dust storms and the Great Depression.
“In Oildale, California, they were outsiders, Okies, his father proud, independent, steady as a rock,” Willie began in the taped piece. “His sudden death threw a shadow over everything. “I couldn’t keep my mind at rest,” Merle said as pictures of his childhood began to tell the visual story. “I’d hear the train whistle, grab my guitar and off I’d go.”
“All he found was trouble,” Willie continued, “petty crimes, two-bit robberies, and a stretch in San Quentin [prison]. Merle swore he’d never lose his freedom again. One night Johnny Cash came to sing for the inmates, and Merle understood that he could find his way with music. The honky-tonks were filled with working folks, whiskey and Saturday nights. Merle didn’t talk much but when he sang, they stopped to listen. He started writing about his own life. The words were never fancy, but always true … Merle’s heart always took his voice where it needed to go.”
At the end of the video, his surprise guests loaded the stage in twos: Kris Kristofferson and Miranda Lambert began their tribute singing ‘Silver Wings.’ Vince Gill came back on stage with his friend Brad Paisley to sing ‘Workin’ Man’s Blues,’ followed by Sheryl Crow and Willie belting out ‘Today I Started Lovin’ You Again.’
Willie, Jamey Johnson and Kid Rock sang ‘Rambling Fever,’ later joined by the whole group to finish out the song with a standing ovation from the entire audience.
The 33rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors will be shown on CBS on December 28 at 9:00 PM (ET).
