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by Derk Richardson
Special to SF GATE: Monday, November 11, 2002
Review: MERLE HAGGARD & LOST WEEKEND, Friday, November 8
One verse into his classic cranky redneck-white-and-blue anthem "Okie from
Muskogee," Merle Haggard stopped his band and told the audience, "Aw,
you don't want to hear that." Perhaps the 65-year-old Bakersfield native
had expected the audience to explode with the same spontaneous roar of recognition
and appreciation with which they had greeted many of the previous 18 songs. So
Haggard led his tight seven-man band of veteran Strangers ("We're not sick" he
cracked early on, "we're just old") into a more universal chestnut
from his original repertoire, "Workin' Man Blues." Then he wrapped
up the show with the contemplative title track from his 2000 album, If I Could
Only Fly.
What
much of the audience did want to hear (as several vocal fans shouted out) and
had been primed for — by the Jazz Festival publicity, emcee Tom Diamant and
a rousing warm-up set by the Bay Area's own Lost Weekend — was a tribute to
Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing. In his introductory remarks, Diamant had
made a strong case for the inclusion of Wills-style music on a jazz festival
program. The longtime KPFA programmer should know; he produced a slew of late-'40s
Wills "Tiffany Transcriptions" on his Kaleidoscope label back in the
'80s. Lost Weekend, led by rhythm guitarist/singer Don Burnham, and featuring
such extraordinary soloists as reed player Jim Rothermel, pedal steel ace Bobby
Black and fiddlers Kevin Wimmer and Paul Anastasio, played true to the night's
theme, complete with versions of "San Antonio Rose," "Faded Love" and "Take
the 'A' Train" (which the Texas Playboys liked to cover from the Ellington
songbook).
Hag, however,
had his own agenda — to put on a Merle Haggard show. With only a version of "Ida
Red" and several brilliant instances of unison playing between the guitars,
fiddle, piano and trumpet (or sax) to make the Wills connection explicit, Haggard
devoted his 80 minutes to such staples as "Big City, "The Bottle Let
Me Down," "Tulare Dust", "Mama Tried," "The Fightin'
Side of Me" and "Sing Me Back Home." He was in fine voice and
spirit. He frequently doffed his hat and sunglasses to acknowledge the adoring
and respectful applause. Doing so he exposed the physical toll age and hard living
have taken on his hairline and craggy face. But his artistry is in top shape,
confirmed by his recent CDs on the punk-associated Epitaph/Anti-label. Obviously,
so is his ornery sense of independence.
Unexpected
highlights: A young Eminem clone too high for anybody's good being escorted by
security from a front-row seat just as Merle was singing "They're taking
you away" during "Silver Wings"; and Merle patiently signing autographs
from the doorway of his tour bus idling outside the auditorium. |
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Publication
date: November 13, 2002
Merle
Haggard was booked into play a "Tribute to Bob Wills" show at
the Masonic last weekend, part of the S.F. Jazz Festival. Wills was the "King
of Texas Swing," and Hag even owns a super rare Stradivarius fiddle that
Wills played. So imagine the quandary and disappointment of the house full of
fans when Haggard, in an otherwise terrific show, failed to play even one Bob
Wills tune. There's talk of litigation. ... "We don't know if a failure
to hold to the repertoire represents a breach of contract," says the S.F.
Jazz Festival's Audrey Faine. "It's under discussion." A decision on
whether to take the outlaw to the law is up to festival founder Randall Kline,
who is in New York. Word backstage was The Hag was fuming when the opening act,
local band Lost Weekend, played an almost exclusively Bob Wills set — most
of the songs included on the acclaimed Bob Wills Tribute album Haggard recorded
back in 1976. "Randall will have a chat with Lost Weekend," Faine explained.
Fans shouted their complaints at Haggard on stage. "We also ran out of beer
for the first time at the Jazz Festival," Faine chuckled. "We had sh--kickers
on Nob Hill." Kline has been after Merle Haggard for years to perform a
Bob Wills show at the festival, now 20 years old. "If fans are really upset," Faine
says, "ticket refunds are a possibility."
Publication
date: November 14, 2002
More
on Merle Haggard's mysteriously Wills-less tribute to Bob Wills, King
of Texas Swing, the other night. Story goes that the Hag decided to omit the
Wills tunes after the opening band, the local group Lost Weekend, probated
the Wills material with aplomb. Says the intriguingly named Merle Mason, "I
thought Lost Weekend was superb, and the crowd wouldn't have minded hearing
classics like 'Faded Love' performed twice in the evening." The Hag got
off some good lines though. Quoth the Son of Bakersfield, "Being back
here in the Bay Area still reminds of the first time here. I was a guest —
I had no choice in the matter." He was referring to the three years he
served in San Q., as a teenager, for burglary. The band started then to play "Okie
from Muskogee." Haggard cut it off: "I just remembered. I think I
mention San Francisco in that song." That drew a big laugh. Hag's memorable
tribute to Baghdad-by-the-Bay in that tune goes: "We don't make a party
out of lovin'; We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo; We don't let our hair
grow long and shaggy, Like the hippies out in San Francisco do." Great
song. ...
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by
Kim Hayden
Special to the Record Searchlight, November 14, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO — Bob Wills, the fiddle-playing and
cigar-smoking bandleader of the '30s and '40s jazz-influenced band, The
Texas Playboys, never thought of himself as a country performer. He thought
he was a swing musician. A swing musician who wore a cowboy hat. "Wills
thought of himself as a pop musician," said Tom Diamant, host of KPFA's
Panhandle Country radio show in Berkeley. "He didn't see himself as
a country musician. (His music) was certainly with Texas influences, but
it was swing nonetheless." No, he wasn't country — he was the
King of Western Swing, and Friday he came close to getting his long-overdue
recognition in jazz society as an accomplished jazz-influenced musician
at the San Francisco Jazz Organization's 20th Anniversary of the San Francisco
Jazz Festival.
Included in their lineup of the 19-day festival was a night dedicated to Wills,
performed by admirer Merle Haggard. It was a spectacular Haggard concert, but
one thing was missing from his performance of "King of Western Swing: Merle
Haggard Salutes Bob Wills" — the tribute to Bob Wills. Following the
set of San Francisco western swing band Lost Weekend, Haggard's band, The Strangers — including
legendary country guitarist Norm Stephens of Cottonwood who still plays a damn
good guitar at age 71 — took the stage and warmed up the crowd. Anticipation
was thick in the auditorium full of Haggard and Wills fans alike. After a few
minutes, Haggard, a longtime Palo Cedro resident, took the stage and immediately
went into one of his own songs. After that song came another Haggard original,
then another, and another, and so on. Instead of a musical tribute to Wills'
recognition by the S.F. Jazz Organization, Haggard performed a Haggard concert.
The one exception was his inclusion of "Ida Red," a traditional folk
song that Wills recorded in the late '30s. Not only did Haggard fail to play
Wills songs, he didn't even mention his name.
"Western swing was going to be given the legitimacy in jazz that it always
deserved and he ruined it," Diamant said. Wills' band included strings,
horns and the smooth, crooning vocals of singer Tommy Duncan. Wills himself played
the fiddle and led his band with high-pitched hoots and hollers. They were swing
all the way — with a western twist. "I think it was an insult to the
memory of Bob Wills who was a man who gave it his all. It was an insult to his
audience," Diamant added. "There were many people who were there to
see a Bob Wills tribute. I have friends who were there who came from far away
in the rain only to be disappointed. We were frustrated, disgusted and it was
a sad moment." At the end of the concert, the audience stood in applause — and
confusion — as they leaned toward their companions saying, "He didn't
play any Bob Wills songs" and "Come on, you know if we keep standing
here clapping, he'll come back out and play some Bob Wills." Only he didn't.
After over an hour of performing, Haggard left the audience standing there, wondering
what had happened. "I'm confused," one woman said to her friends as
concertgoers began filing out of the auditorium after lingering long enough to
know that Haggard wasn't coming back out. "We all are," another woman
replied.
Diamant mentioned that Haggard had said in an interview in the Nov. 6 issue of
the San Francisco Chronicle that he felt Wills' belonged in a jazz festival. "As
far as I know, he was aware it was supposed to be a tribute to Wills and talked
about it, and felt it was appropriate for the festival to do a tribute," said
Diamant, who talked-up the homage in his opening remarks before the performance. "He
apparently decided not to do that." Diamant said remembered a man backstage
asking Haggard to play some Wills songs, and the Hag "looked right at him
and launched into one of his own songs." Audience members yelled out Wills
songs, as well, but they didn't get to hear any — save for "Ida Red," which,
as one concertgoer said in an e-mail to Diamant, "wasn't enough." "I
was a little bit miffed," said bluegrass musician Corbin Pagter, 38, of
Berkeley who attended the concert. "I'm a huge fiddle fan and I thought
there would be more Bob Wills tunes and acknowledgement. Don't get me wrong,
it was a great performance. He has a real stage demeanor and an incredible presence.
But, was there something I missed?"
Although many at the concert walked away upset and disappointed, many others
were completely satisfied with Haggard's performance. "I bought tickets
to see Merle and I wasn't disappointed at all," said Bob Luscombe, 32, of
San Francisco. "I was unclear why it wasn't actually a tribute to Bob Wills.
It was confusing but it was a really good show of standard Haggard stuff." Haggard
lived up to his image of rebellion that night, and through all the mass-confusion,
his non-conformist ways still put a smile on some people's faces. "It's
kind of cool if he agreed to do a whole Bob Wills set and just didn't do it," said
Luscombe, a self-proclaimed hater of jazz. "At least I got to see him." Wills
fans and jazz festival supporters appeared to have the strongest feelings about
Haggard's snub of Wills. "We tend to put up with a lot from artists and
certainly Bob Wills did his share of getting drunk and not showing up to concerts," Diamant
said. "For Mr. Haggard to show up and so blatantly ignore his audience is
worse than not even showing up. It was a disrespect to the memory of Bob Wills."
Kim Hayden, a senior at San Francisco State University, is the assistant managing
editor of (X)press online, the university's online magazine. |
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Jazz
festival's rag on Hag off the mark
Special to the Record Searchlight, November 21, 2002
Every
time Merle Haggard performs, it's a tribute to Bob Wills. That's something
organizers with San Francisco
Jazz Festival don't seem to realize. According to a story in the San
Francisco Examiner last week, the festival was actually considering litigation
against Haggard for not performing any Wills songs in a Nov. 8 concert
billed as a tribute to the legendary pioneer of Texas swing. A lawsuit
against Haggard? What a joke. First off, Haggard played two Wills tunes
at the festival show — "Ida Red" and an instrumental
called "Boothill Drag." That seemed to fly over the heads of
many. Secondly, he was being generous to do that. Haggard received a
raw deal when the Bay Area band Lost Weekend warmed up the show by playing
an almost exclusive set of Wills material, including most of the songs
from Haggard's 1976 Bob Wills tribute album. What was the Hag supposed
to do, go out and repeat all those songs? Who knows what Lost Weekend
was thinking, but more importantly, the concert promoter should have
coordinated the material beforehand. It seems that process wasn't very
well thought out. But beyond that, Haggard's very presence at the festival
was a tribute to Wills.
"Western
swing isn't a song, it's a style," said
Cottonwood's Norm Stephens, the guitarist who rejoined Haggard for his
recent shows, including the San Francisco performance. "I think
the criticism (Haggard's received) is highly unjust. Ninty-nine point
nine percent of the people were very satisfied with the show. It's a
farce to think he's not respecting Bob Wills' heritage." Prior to
the concert, Haggard had been diligently rehearsing Wills tunes for weeks.
I think he was fully prepared to perform them until he heard the set
by Lost Weekend. After witnessing that, he decided to play a set of his
own material plus a pair of Wills tunes that Lost Weekend didn't touch.
By all accounts that I've heard, it was a strong performance. Haggard
happens to be a giant of American music, not just country, who can fall
back on his own great material. Many deft music experts believe he's
at the top of his game right now — both in the studio and on stage.
In other words, he didn't space the tribute. He owns Bob Wills' fiddle
and has a giant photo of him plastered on his wall in his Palo Cedro
home. Haggard had his reasons for playing the type of show he did. The
71-year-old Stephens, Lefty Frizzell's former guitarist (who was once
offered a job by Bob Wills) said it was 10-hour struggle just to get
to the San Francisco gig. Haggard didn't do an encore, but he almost
never does them. He played the show despite still recovering from foot
surgery and recent back problems. The festival was lucky to have him
perform at all. In time, hopefully the organizers and audience members
realize that.
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Bobby
Black, Robert Black, Sr. / Ingrid Noyes, Don, Carlo Calabi / Don,
Mark, Richard Saslow,
Bing & Nathan in the background |
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