. . . Texas city.
That's because . . .
. . . Merle Haggard played there last night, to a happy crowd of people who work for a living and know good music when they hear it. Except for a beavy of young lovelies in the first row and a scattered teenager here and there, we tended toward the elderly persuasion, but -- like Mr. Haggard -- we ain't dead yet.
Ol' Merle has lost a step, vocalwise. He's seventy-seven -- a year younger than Buddy Holly would have been -- and running on a lung and a half, thanks to decades of smoking of substances both legal and illegal.
But he lacks in voice control, he makes up in the quality of his material, which he mostly wrote, and the quality of his presence and presentation. If he's faking the sincerity (except on one song; see below), he's doing a good job.
He did twenty-three songs without an intermission. He started with one of his thirty-eight No. 1 hits -- "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink" (1980) -- country jazz and a good warm-up piece for the Strangers. And he ended with another, what else but "Okie from Muskogee" (1969)?
Unca D and the rest of the crowd whooped and hollered through "we still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse," which Mr. Haggard delivered straight. But when he got to "we don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee," he went all ironic: "We don't smoke wicked old marijuana in Muskogee," delivered with the country version of a British wink, wink, nudge, nudge. The crowd got what he was doing and whooped and hollered anyway, further evidence, if any is needed, that the times are a'changing. [See "declinism."]
Mr. Haggard's Telecaster licks ranged from not-quite-there to awesome. He deferred on about half of them to a side man, Binion Haggard. Young Ben is the senior Mr. Haggard's youngest child from the old man's "last litter" -- called that from the stage -- with the fifth and last (so-far) Mrs. Haggard, Theresa. ("We call him 'Fertile Merle'," another son quipped.) Ben played with the assured chops that come from good instruction (available to many) and good genes (rare).
I don't know if Merle Haggard and the strangers love to tour or they just need the money, but they are booked solid for the next several months, many in regional venues like Crockett's Civic Center.
The next local appearance will be October 11 in Angleton at the Brazoria County Fair, followed by November gigs in San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth.
I may need to go again. You should too. It would do you good.
The best part last: The Crockett concert was sponsored by the Piney Woods Fine Arts Association.
Fine.
Arts.
Indeed.
The folks in Crockett have their priorities straight.
* * *
My next favorite Texas city is likely to be Lubbock. Paul McCartney appears there on October 2. I wouldn't go across the street to hear him otherwise, but he'll be doing an homage to Buddy Holly. That's worth some good money.
Crickets. Beatles. Get it?
And the first song young Paul and John ever recorded -- I've mentioned this before, but it cannot be mentioned too often -- was "That'll Be the Day!"
See you there?
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