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Last of the Breed Tour
Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ray Price
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY

http://www.bethelwoods.us/

 

 

This show is getting rave reviews, but no surprise there!  Go see this show if you can.  It’s an amazing show and a rare chance to get to see all of these great artists perform together.  The list of dates remaining is getting shorter:

8/29/07  Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY
8/31/07  Taj Majah. Atlantic City, NJ
9/1/07   Presque Isle Forum, Presque Isle, ME
9/2/07  Champlain Valley Exposition, Essex Junction, VT
9/4/07  Bank of America Pavillion, Boston, MA
9/6/07  Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
9/7/07  York Fair, York, PA
9/8/07  Soverign Center, Reading, PA
9/9/07  Farm Aid, Randall’s Island, NY

HUNTINGTON — Tri-State music fans got a taste of outlaw country Saturday night as the Last of the Breed tour brought legendary performers Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Ray Price to the Big Sandy Superstore Arena.

Nelson, 74, is a constant road performer and tours most of the year. He last played West Virginia at a 2004 Labor Day campaign rally in Charleston hosted by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. His last appearance in Huntington was in September of 2003.

Haggard, 70, whose hits include “Mama Tried” and “The Bottle Let me Down,” has enjoyed a career nearly as long as Nelson’s.

Haggard led his band the Strangers through many of his signature songs, before being joined onstage by Nelson at the end of his set during “Okie From Muskogee.”

“How y’all doin’?” Nelson asked the crowd of about 5,000, who responded with thunderous applause. The two proceeded to perform a series of songs together, including “Pancho and Lefty.”

The two were joined by veteran country musician Price. Known as the Cherokee Cowboy, Price, 81, recorded with Haggard and Nelson on his latest work “Last of the Breed.” The trio have been touring to promote the album since it was released in March.

Last of the Breed Concert
Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ray Price

Tickets available at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena Box Office, all Ticketmaster Outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com, and Charge-By-Phone at (304) 523-5757.

 

Despite a power outage, which left much of the northern end of the county, including Smokies Stadium, in the dark until just minutes before the start of the Last of the Breed Concert with Willie Nelson, Ray Price and Merle Haggard, the show went off without a hitch. Around 5,800 fans crowded in to see the legends perform.

The show was a huge success,” said Allen Newton, executive director of the Sevier County Economic Development Council, which organized the concert. “It went off flawlessly.”  They did a great job,” Newton said of the Sevierville County Electric System. “We couldn’t have asked for anything more. There are many things that we as a staff and the Smokies staff can control. When the power goes out, that’s out of our hands.”

Bob Stahlke, spokesman for the Sevierville Police Department, said the event was quiet for law enforcement. Officers set up a command post in the press box to spot the few people who misbehaved during the event. Most of those who got out of hand were simply intoxicated, though Stahlke said police were on the lookout for illegal substance use as well.

Officers already stationed at traffic lights along Highway 66 to help ease traffic flow were sent reinforcements as they had to direct cars when the power went out.

Brad and Ineda Cawthorne drove from Crossville to see Nelson for the third time together. The concert was a chance for Ineda Cawthorne to show off her “Marry Me Willie” shirt.

“Brad only agreed to marry me if I said we could go see Willie on our wedding night,” she said. “So we went that night to see him at the Grand Ole Opry. We like Merle, but we’re really here for Willie.”

The musicians didn’t disappoint, with each playing their own sets and teaming up on several songs. Nelson and Haggard even paired up to sing “Pancho and Lefty,” a duet they took to the top of the charts.

http://carolinacrossroadsnews.blogspot.com
Daily Herald

ROANOKE RAPIDS – Carolina Crossroads officials expect crowds in excess of 30,000 people to show up for Friday night’s “Last of the Breed” tour starring Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Ray Price.

So far all 2,900 platinum and all 2,500 gold level tickets have are sold out and general admission tickets are selling so fast that Carolina Crossroads spokesman, Les Atkins says, right now, he’s not quite sure how many have been sold.

Additional food and more than 50,000 bottles of water have been ordered to accommodate concertgoers. Security and emergency protocols have also been modified to handle the big crowd.

The concert is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Merle and Willie will each sing some of their greatest hits and then they’ll be joined on-stage by Price and all three will perform together.

Willie’s band will provide the music for all three singers and Willie will close the show.

“When stars like this align, people take notice and that has been evident by the ticket sales,” said Elizabeth Branham, Carolina Crossroads Entertainment Director.

For more information, visit www.carolinacrossroads.com

(Thanks to Katie for this picture, from Biloxi)

Thoughts from Merle:
www.esquire.com

Willie Nelson is an idol for me. The music is sort of immaterial. Willie is seventy-four. A lot of people don’t realize how healthy he is. He doesn’t eat any strict diet. But he doesn’t eat very much of anything. He understands the value of water.

I’ve lived at the very end of what must have been a wonderful country.

They’ve left the redwoods up alongside the highway so we’ll think they’re all there. But go up in an airplane and you’ll see that they’ve clear-cut everything behind.

The kids just don’t know how big the tear on the rip-off was. If they had any idea, I believe they could do something about it. But it may be too late. We’ll see. They’re smarter. They can talk to one another. I don’t look for a politician to bullshit his way in this time.

When I was nine years old, right after my dad died, my mother got me some violin lessons with this big heavyset lady. It took nine lessons before this lady said to my mother, “You’re wasting your money. He’s got too good an ear. He’s not going to fool with learning to read when he can play something that he hears on the radio.” When I heard her say that, I knew I had something.

We weren’t thieves by nature. Pranksters. Practical jokers. We were without a car one time, Dean Holloway and I. We just went out and started borrowing cars. Sometimes we’d bring ’em back. Put gas in ’em. Clean ’em up. Leave a little note: THANKS FOR THE CAR. Like the Phantom.

I’m in a very small percentage of people ever in the joint who beat it. It’s like 2 percent of 2 percent. If you’ve ever been to the joint, you’re going back.

I’ll tell you why it’s different when somebody else is singing “Mama Tried”: They’re reading the words. I’m telling the story.

I got out something like nine that morning. February 3, 1960. There’s a big metal security device at the main door coming out of San Quentin. When they open that door, it comes up and you have to step over it. Just as I was stepping over that device, a Hank Snow record came on. “The Last Ride.” My foot just stopped in midair. The song was coming from a radio near this guard who was standing there with his gun. He said, “What, did you change your mind?” I said, “No, that’s a really great song.” I stayed there and listened to the rest of the song.

Couldn’t have done the music without it. Wouldn’t have thought of it. Wouldn’t have been part of me.

Seventy is a big mark. I’m feeling good. But Bing Crosby felt good, too, and he came off the eighteenth hole, just kind of laid down in the grass, and that was that.

Freedom is what prohibition ain’t.

I probably had as bad a sex urge as anybody when I was younger. I remember an old guitar player, Eldon Shamblin, told me, “When you get pussy off your mind, you can go ahead and learn something.” Isn’t that great?

Willie Nelson’s the one who told me the reason it costs so much to get divorced is because it’s worth it.

I remember going to a dance when I was a kid — my older brother took me in. Roy Nichols was playing. My brother said, “Hey, there’s a little guy in there playing guitar. He don’t have to pick cotton or go to school.” Roy Nichols became my idol on the guitar. Many years later, he went on to play for me for half price. But he and I could never look directly at each other. I never knew why. At first, I thought it was because I admired him too much. But it was Roy, too. Anyway, late in his life, Roy had a stroke. Paralyzed him on one side. Right down the middle. Half of his nose he could blow, the other half was dead. After his stroke, I went over to Roy’s house. He looked me right in the eye and said, “Look here: I love you.” I got chills. He said, “That old shit went down the hole with this stroke.”

They got laws for the white man and laws for the black man — we all know that.

Lefty Frizzell said you don’t have to experience everything to sing about it. But you’ve got to believe it.

I think what we’re lacking in music today is it seems like all the good stories have been already taken. “Stardust” has already been written. “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” “Imagine.” God almighty, lightning may never strike again like that.

If only somebody could come up with something different — start a new trend. Real music. If only somebody could sing a song, had something to say, had a good melody, and could do it in person, without help from any electronics. I think the people would go nuts. It’s bound to happen. There’s got to be a guy out there somewhere. A natural.

Willie Nelson, Ray Price, Merle Haggard
Last of the Breed Tour
Roanoke Rapids