Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson performing at the Milwaukee Theater. Milwaukee, WI. October 24th, 2015. All photos by Benjamin Wick.
Here are more of his great photos:
photos: Benjamin Wick
http://www.jsonline.com/multimedia/photos/willie-nelson-and-merle-haggard-play-milwaukee-theater-b99603002z1-336757901.html?gallerypage=1
www.jsonline.com
by: Piet Levy
There’s a mathematical formula for Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s sold-out Milwaukee Theatre show Saturday night: 2 + 41 = 1.
No, I’m not stoned out of my mind on Nelson’s favorite wacky tabacky.
Saturday, you had two country music legends sharing the bill, and for long stretches the stage. Nelson may be 82, Haggard 78, but the longtime friends (and, arguably, musical soul mates) performed together and separately with the same gravitas and spark that will immortalize their legacies.
With their sets combined, they touched on 41 songs, hits and classics from “Big City” to “Mama Tried” to “Crazy” to “On the Road Again.”
And when you add everything up, you had one of the best concerts of the year.
Saturday marked one of Nelson’s first shows after canceling a few gigs due to illness, and he seemed completely rejuvenated. The “Still” solo was rugged yet stunning–thick and twangy one second, fast and nimble the next, like a flamenco dancer–expressed with the same significance as the oxygen Nelson deeply inhaled whenever he let loose. His blues solo on “Night Life,” a memorable moment from that last Milwaukee show, was even rowdier, before Nelson put a bow on it with the melody from “Jingle Bells.” And even with a subdued five-piece behind him–including younger sis Bobbie on piano, and the night’s MVP, harmonica player Mickey Raphael–“Beer for My Horses,” Nelson’s singalong with Toby Keith, was crafted with the same exotic flourishes you might expect from a bold microbrew.
And while the set’s fast pace felt rushed last time, Saturday, it was breathless and exhilarating, largely because Nelson played with such passion, and consistently sang with tenderness and warmth. It was as if he was challenging the crowd to keep up, running through 24 songs in 70 minutes without losing an emotional beat, from the thick-as-thieves staple “Me and Paul” (with its funny little reference to Milwaukee); to the aching “Always on My Mind;” to back-to-back spirituals “I’ll Fly Away” and “I Saw the Light” that saw scores of people dancing like giddy fools in the aisles.
And to think, this was all preceded by Haggard’s own exceptional 70-minute set. At nine people, his band was nearly twice the size of Nelson’s, and included a fiddle, steel guitar and saxophone. But the polish never overshadowed Haggard’s grit. His guitar work on “Silver Wings” may have been choppy, but it was the right kind of woozy on “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink.” He was appropriately somber for “If I Could Only Fly”–and the band appropriately reserved–but his deadpan delivery on “Are the Good Times Really Over” made the 33-year-old punchlines funny and fresh. And for a riotous cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” Haggard embraced the words “Just to watch him die” with delicious, devilish glee the Man in Black would most certainly admire.
Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson performing at the Milwaukee Theater. Milwaukee, WI. October 24th, 2015. All photos by Benjamin Wick.
But the best parts of the night were when Nelson and Haggard were side by side. For the last 10 songs of Nelson’s closing set, Haggard was a welcomed member of the band; the highlight being some boogie woogie backing on electric guitar during “Move It On Over.” Then for the last five songs of Haggard’s set, the men were proper duet partners. It didn’t matter much that Nelson forgot some words during a jazzy “Pancho and Lefty;” the friends were clearly having fun together, whether it was Nelson hilariously dismissing marijuana and long hair on Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee,” or the pair grinning through the cheeky “It’s All Going to Pot,” their single from this year’s collaborative album “Django and Jimmie.”
And it may all be going to pot, but these two definitely aren’t.
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THE TAKEAWAYS:
?The audience was truly all ages, from eighty-somethings to a boy who looked to be eight front and center, wearing a red bandanna like Nelson, frequently singing along and cheering and bouncing like he was at a Packers game. Nelson naturally noticed the boy, looking him in the eye as he sang some songs, and tossing him his own bandanna during a cover of Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya (On the Bayou).”
?That boy wasn’t the only one who got a special souvenir; Nelson stayed behind for five minutes after the show to shake hands and sign countless autographs.
?It felt like practically every single person in the 4,000-capacity Milwaukee Theatre wandered up near the stage to take a picture. Nelson didn’t seem to mind, frequently nodding toward smartphone-packing fans, and even security helped some kneeling amateur photogs back up to their feet.
?Bobbie Nelson wasn’t the only relative on stage. Haggard was backed by youngest son Ben Haggard–a talented guitarist in his own right. Second-born Noel Haggard sang lead for the first two songs and backing vocals for his father, and Haggard’s wife Theresa sang backing vocals too, and sang alongside Nelson’s daughter Amy at the end.
?Best merch item: Willie Nelson for President posters. (Take that Trump, and Kanye)
THE SETLIST
NOEL HAGGARD’S SET
1. “Dealing with the devil”
2. “Bad News”
MERLE HAGGARD’S SET
1. “Big City”
2. “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star”
3. “Silver Wings”
4. “Folsom Prison Blues”
5. “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”
6. “If I Could Only Fly”
7. “Mama Tried”
8. “If We Make It Through December”
9. “Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)”
10. “Footlights”
11. “That’s The Way Love Goes”
12. “Working Man Blues”
13. “Milk Cow Blues” (with Willie Nelson, on stage for the rest of the set)
14. “It’s All Going to Pot”
15. “Reasons to Quit”
16. “Pancho and Lefty”
17. “Okie from Muskogee”
WILLIE NELSON’S SET
1. “Whiskey River”
2. “Still is Still Moving to Me”
3. “Beer for My Horses”
4. “Good Hearted Woman”
5. “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”
6. “Funny How Time Slips Away”
7. “Crazy”
8. “Night Life”
9. “Down Yonder” (instrumental led by Bobbie Nelson)
10. “Me and Paul”
11. “If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got the Time”
12. “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”
13. “On the Road Again”
14. “Always on My Mind”
15. “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)”
16. “Hey, Good Lookin'”
17. “Move It On Over”
18. “Georgia On My Mind”
19. “I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train”
20. “Shoeshine Man”
21. “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die”
22. “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”
23. “I’ll Fly Away”
24. “I Saw the Light”
About Piet Levy
Piet Levy covers music for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and TapMilwaukee.com. For more music updates, you can also follow him on Facebook and Instagram?.
Hello stillisstillmoving.com Administrator.
Hi stillisstillmoving.com admin, You always provide in-depth analysis and understanding.