Merle Haggard: Country-Jazz Pioneer

Merle Haggard and The Strangers - Corrine, Corrina
Civic Center, Philadelphia
February 14, 1970*
Featuring Chubby Wise on fiddle
* I've read conflicting reports that this show was recorded on 2/14/70 and 3/14/70, but the Valentine's date seems more credible.

A couple of weeks ago, I asserted that Merle Haggard is the greatest singer/songwriter the state of California has ever produced. I stand by that. Hag has one of the most understated, yet soulful voices I've ever heard and he's a great songwriter, not by country standards, but by Bob Dylan/Duke Ellington standards. And yet, like those two men, it's Merle's vision and diligence as bandleader that's been the key to his 50-year career.

In May 1980, Merle appeared on the cover of Down Beat, which wouldn't have raised eyebrows were it not a jazz publication. In hindsight, it was a brilliant editorial decision. Haggard leads his band, The Strangers, with an Ellingtonian sense of pacing and color and has often referred to his music as country-jazz because of its emphasis on solo improvisation.

As longtime drummer, Biff Adam, told Classic Drummer, "Merle never does the same show twice. We’re always loose up on the stage. He doesn’t even play songs in the same key or the same tempo. So, it’s almost like jazz. He keeps everybody on their toes because we don’t have any idea what’s going to happen. Like last night, some of the endings we played I don’t think we’ve ever heard before. I think he got that from Bob Wills. That’s the way his band was. He’d just point at the guy he wanted to play the turnaround."


Austin City Limits, 1978 [buy CD/DVD combo]

Here's Merle and The Strangers at their mid-'70s peak swinging through an old Bob Wills number. The video opens with Hag on fiddle, which is an interesting story. Apparently, Merle learned rudimentary fiddle skills as a kid, but hadn't played the instrument for years. In 1969, he challenged himself to become proficient enough to actually lead a twin fiddle band. So, over the next several months he did just that.

Think about that decision in context. In 1969-70, Merle Haggard was king of the fucking mountain. He was on a 4-year hot streak of #1 hits and was poised to win 9 major country music awards over those two years. He was a genuine cultural presence with "Okie From Muskogee" and "Fightin' Side Of Me" revealing fissures between professional middle class whites and working/lower middle/lower class whites.

Merle could've pandered to the obvious, wrote a handful of anti-hippie anthems, and spent the next decade cashing million dollar checks. Instead, at the height of his fame and power, he transformed The Strangers from lockdown honky-tonk badasses into the swinging, country-jazz assault vehicle you see above and below. Pure balls.


Austin City Limits, 1978 [buy CD/DVD combo]

The beauty of Merle is that his honky tonk is mixed up with blues, R&B, jazz, folk ballads, dixieland, and just enough pop to be dangerous. All of which sounds suspiciously like rock 'n' roll. This arrangement is straight out of the Ray Charles bag of tricks. What else to love?

• Mark Yeary, Strangers pianist from 1973-92, laying down the sweet muppet boogie woogie.
  
  
• Merle's econo guitar solo is a treat. He's a great guitar player in his own right, with a wonderful sense of rhythm.
  
  
• I should've mentioned the Hamlet Helmet last time, but I was busy genuflecting about Hag. Look, Norman Hamlet's steel playing is top notch and he was also an integral part of the Haggard sound, but I can't stop looking at his toupee. Seriously, that's a helmet full of win. The only downside to a rug that powerful is that at some point it becomes self-aware and goes solo. However, circa '74, it was content with its own per diem.
  
  
• Roy Nichols' solo from 1:47-2:15 is a thing of beauty. He doesn't get nearly enough attention, but he was Merle's secret weapon for over 20 years and he's gotta be one of the ten or so greatest guitar players ever. Roy was the original Telesattva, the precursor and inspiration to Merle Haggard, Don Rich, James Burton, Clarence White, Roy Buchanan, Albert Lee, Danny Gatton, and Redd Volkaert. Go back and listen to "Old Fashioned Love." His proper solo from 1:29-1:46 is all-time, but his subtle playing under Merle from :39-:55 is like a bop solo. And then there's "Mama Tried."
  

Canada, 1978

Sure, the VHS transfer is for shit. But damn if Roy Nichols' brief, but brilliant guitar playing doesn't shine through. His compact solo from 1:09-1:17 segues perfectly into a cool jazz turnaround (1:17-1:35) where The Strangers emulate the Charlie Parker Septet ("Groovin' High," "Yardbird Suite").


Blackboard Bar, Oildale, CA, 1971

This isn't bad if you like Merle singing Jimmie Rodgers and Lefty Frizzell songs while Roys Nichols and Buchanan duel on Telecaster. Plus, a good excerpt of an interview with Buchanan admitting the Nichols influence. God bless you, internet.

Merle Haggard and The Strangers - Impersonation Medley
Civic Center, Philadelphia
March 14, 1970

I'm gonna leave you with one of the great medleys of all-time. Why don't more people know about this??? Merle's mimicry of Marty Robbins, Hank Snow (who opened the show with Chubby Wise), Johnny Cash, and Buck Owens is phenomenal. It's no wonder he became a star given his ridiculous talent. But, listen to how versatile The Strangers are. They perfectly complement Hag's expansive musical vision of country music, with June Carter harmony from Bonnie Owens and Don Rich backup vox from Bobby Wayne.

The Strangers: 1970-73 (L-R)

Norman Hamlet - pedal steel guitar, dobro, hair helmet
Dennis Hromek (blonde guy) - bass, background vocals
Biff Adam (vest) - drums, bus driver
Roy Nichols - lead guitar, god among men
Bobby Wayne - rhythm guitar, vocals

This is American Music. Learn it, know it, live it.

Do You Want New Wave (Or Do You Want The Truth)?

I'm proud to say Iris DeMent emerges from the same Orange County, California, background as me (her: Buena Park/me: La Habra & Huntington Beach). This song may be folk music superficially, but lyrically it's punk as fuck. If Iris says justice sinks to the bottom of the sea, who am I to argue?

Kickstart Bob Forrest Documentary

Thelonious Monster/Bob Forrest fans can help fund the new documentary about his life, Bob And The Monster. Filmmaker Keirda Bahruth has spent the last six years chronicling his rise, fall, and rise. Another $1000 and her project covers costs of music rights, archival clearances, sound mix, and Bob's fleet of limo Priuses. He's one of my heroes, surviving at times almost in spite of himself, and has come out the other side to tell us about it. And I'm not just saying that because I've been promised a limo Prius. Bob is truth.

Kickstart Bob And The Monster

The Pitfalls of the City are Extremely Real

photo by tapsjg

Like California, Los Angeles has been rebuked and scorned in book, film, song, musical, vaudeville, pretty much every medium dating back to protozoan wall art. It's easy to hate LA. I don't have much of a problem with the city, beyond traffic, but the entertainment-industrial complex is a whoremaker chewing up everything in its path like a tornado made of assholes. I get the hate. Let's channel that hate into song.

Bicycle Thief - L.A. Country Hometown Blues (1999) [buy]

"This wicked old town
Where everybody lies to themselves
Where they gobble you up
Swallow you down, spit you out."

The Bicycle Thief (pictured left) was Bob Forrest's post-Thelonious Monster collaboration with Josh Klinghoffer, now the Red Hot Chili Peppers hotshot guitarist, but then a 20-year-old industry neophyte. Of course, he was a neophyte who played all the guitar parts on "LA Country," as well as dobro, cello bass, drums, and added harmony vocals with Bob and Anna Waronker of That Dog. The final :40 is particularly impressive, with what sounds like 8 different vocal tracks laid on top of one another. It creates a lazy, wobbling effect reminiscent of New Morning-era Bob Dylan.

The irony of the song's anti-Los Angeles narrative is that Bob is actually one of LA's biggest cheerleaders. If you don't believe me, then you obviously aren't listening to the awesome rantopolis that is All Up In The Interweb, his online "radio" gig every Wednesday night from 8-10 pm PST. You can listen live or download the shows as podcasts.

You should also check out a great interview with Bob and Josh (but mostly Bob) at DJ Roky Manson's hollywood bungalow. It was conducted in 1999, when the BT released You Come And Go Like A Pop Song in its first incarnation on Goldenvoice Records.

Gram Parsons (w/Emmylou Harris) - Sin City (1973) [buy]

"The true story of 'Sin City' is that I came up with that first verse and part of the chorus and I woke him (Gram Parsons) up. I said I think there’s something interesting here: 'This old town's filled with sin/It'll swallow you in.' He came up with the 'green mohair suits' stuff, a fascinating line, and then went off on some abstract thing about being at Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Strip. It was a microcosm of the culture at that particular time. Robert Kennedy*, by the way, was the man who 'came around, tried to clean up this town.'"
--Chris Hillman to Barry Mazor, No Depression Magazine, Nov 2008

This version of "Sin City" comes not from the rightly lauded Gilded Palace Of Sin, but from an off-the-cuff radio interview during the Fallen Angels tour in 1973. It's Gram, Emmylou, and drummer, ND Smart (all pictured right), and despite being flawed and occasionally flat, it's a remarkable document of the Gram/Emmy magic. Say what you want about GP's lackluster work ethic, when he was properly focused ... and by all accounts, 1973 was a great year for focus ... he was pretty tough to beat.

* Robert Kennedy, of course, was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968, a few months before "Sin City" was written.

Backsliders - Lexington Avenue (1996) [buy]

"This ain’t Nashville. This is Raleigh."
--Backsliders bumper sticker

The Backsliders were one of the great alt.country hopes of the mid-to-late '90s. They were great because their brand of alt.country basically sounded like Damn The Torpedoes and Sticky Fingers and I have a rule that any band drawing inspiration from those two albums gets a bit of a pass. What made The Backsliders work was that Chip Robinson's country songs were played by a country band that could balls-out rock. Brad Rice later went on to be the lead guitar player in Whiskeytown and Son Volt (as well as Tift Merritt and Keith Urban) and I think the solo on "Lexington Ave" is him. But Steve Howell, who formed the band with Robinson, is a fine guitar player in his own right, so it could be him. If any Backslider fan knows for sure, feel free to post in the comments.

Incidentally, Chip Robinson is playing the Guitartown/Conqueroo party at this year's SXSW, which is usually one of the better Wednesday evening options. Check it out. I'm jealous I can't go.

Willie Nelson - Bloody Mary Morning (1978) [buy]

"All the night life and the parties
Temptation and deceit the order of the day
And it's a bloody mary morning
Cause I'm leavin' baby somewhere in LA."

People rarely think about this as a Los Angeles song, but the smog and haze (if not the temptation and deceit) should tell you otherwise. The studio version is from Willie's classic 1974 album, Phases And Stages ... also downloadable at my 'RIP Jerry Wexler' post ... but my favorite rendition is from Willie And Family Live, recorded and released in 1978.

Compared to the P&S recording this version breathes fire, the band stretching out in the fashion that's now taken for granted, but was just becoming part of the americana musical landscape. Willie takes off on one of his patented minimalist Django runs, with harmonica player, Mickey Raphael, playing off the Trigger man. The secret weapon of both the song and the Family Band is drummer, Paul English, who pushes this song into a homegrown, aeroponically grown, and completely organic blend of western swing and country-rock.

Dwight Yoakam (w/Flaco Jiménez) - Carmelita (1992) [buy]

Warren Zevon's original is a first ballot Hall of Famer, no question. But, I like this recording better. It helps to have one of the best country singers and songwriters of the last 30 years (Yoakam) and an acordeonista legendario (Jiménez). Flaco is great, but Dwight kills it. I've been listening to his catalog of late and I keep wondering one thing. Why aren't people talking about Dwight Yoakam as one of the all-time greats?

Anyone who likes country music even a little bit likes DY. His career took off in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, occasionally playing shows with X, The Blasters, and Los Lobos, and he's been in LA ever since. At the height of the "hat act" era, stood out, almost casually, as the real deal. He's had a few missteps, but that's gonna happen in a 30 year career.

How's this for an 8-album run?

1986 - Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.
1987 - Hillbilly Deluxe
1988 - Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room
1989 - Just Lookin' For A Hit (comp)
1990 - If There Was A Way
1993 - This Time
1995 - Dwight Live
1995 - Gone

Not too shabby for a Cali boy.

"I think it's safe to say that the single very impressive figure to me was Merle Haggard."
--Warren Zevon

I know I'm in the minority, but I think the greatest singer/songwriter California has ever produced is Merle Haggard, not Brian Wilson. Granted, it's meat and potatoes vs. vega-tables and both food groups are important. I can flesh out my pro-Hag argument later, but I offer one observation. In 1965, Merle released his debut album, Strangers. It's ok, if you like hearing one of the greatest country voices ever and textbook honky tonk music. In 1974, Hag released Merle Haggard Presents His 30th Fucking Album. Think about that. In 9 years he released 30 albums!

While there may have been a slight songwriting dropoff between 1965 and 1974 ... and setting aside the 5 Strangers instrumental albums and 2 compilations ... that's still 23 albums of mostly original material, with some great live tracks and spirited covers mixed in (Bob Wills, Jimmie Rodgers, e.g.). That's roughly 275 songs, many of which are upper deck home runs. People have yet to catch up to the Merle Haggard catalog ... but they will.

Iris DeMent - Big City (1994) [buy]

"I don't feel emotionally bound to California, where I grew up. I feel emotionally bound to DeMent Island (Arkansas). That's where I'm from and I feel that I wouldn't be doing music if it weren't for my strong sense of connection to my ancestors I never met."
--Iris DeMent to Nicholas Dawidoff, In The Country Of Country, p. 270

One of the rare instances when the pupil bested the master. Hag recorded "Big City" in 1981 for his album of the same name and it remains one of his best songs from that era. But, Iris owns it and Merle knows it. She recorded the song in 1994 for Tulare Dust: A Songwriter's Tribute To Merle Haggard and he loved her version so much he sought HER out. What makes the cover work on dual levels is that the anti-LA conceit remains, but the gender switch ironically gives the song more balls.

Iris' appeal is simple, really. She sings with a keening, plaintive twang that's capable of reducing grown-ass men to a blubbering mess. "Big City" is no exception. There's two acoustic guitars, a tasteful lead, and that voice, that instrument seemingly beamed in from a Dust Bowl radio station. God bless Iris DeMent.

"Big City" is dedicated with love to Amber Wagner.

Turn Your Pretty Head and Walk Away

Li'l Cap'n Travis - Teenage Mustache > James Gang - Walk Away

"Braces and a teenage mustache
Sit beside me in my Mustang
We can listen to the James Gang
Turn your pretty head and walk away."

We'll get to the James Gang in a second, but first some love for Austin's Li'l Cap'n Travis. Jeff Johnston sings only four lines over a rudimentary piano figure, but it brilliantly captures a singular moment of adolescence. My face is breaking out just thinking about it. Extra credit for the lyrical hat tip to Thelonious Monster's "Sammy Hagar Weekend."

We got a Metallica T-shirt
Got a little tiny baby mustache
Got a jacked-up Camaro
We're sittin' in the parking lot at Anaheim Stadium.

The common imagery is probably accidental, but it's interesting that both songs use the teenage mustache as a signifier for an adolescent rite of passage. And you know what goes great with adolescence? Joe Fucking Walsh.

It's hard to believe the classic James Gang lineup was only together for two years. Dale Peters joined on bass in late 1969, just in time for the Rides Again sessions, and Walsh went solo in late 1971. In between were some of the swampiest, funkiest rock songs of the era.

"Walk Away" features an all-time guitar riff, a great vocal, and the unheralded Jim Fox throwing down on drums. I love how he lays back in the verses and then propels the beat forward in the chorus. But, the star of the song is Walsh and his ten or so guitar tracks ending in a Yardbirds-esque martian guitar scrum, which he called a "train wreck" in the Thirds liner notes. If that was a wreck, they should've wrecked more.



Rides Again and Thirds are very good studio albums, but the James Gang were meant to be heard live. For example, this version of "Walk Away" from July 1971 ... four months before Walsh left to Barnstorm ... cannot be topped. That riff makes babies. Great vocal in a Fogerty/Cobain kinda way. Nasty guitar and bass tone, with Joe's leads from 2:07-2:26 and 2:35-3:11 being particularly ridiculous. And if all that weren't enough, what a rhythm section!

Walsh was so talented he could play rhythm parts and lead parts simultaneously, but it was comforting to have DP on bong-rattling bass and Jim Fox destroying the kit. (Please note the stagehand at :18 repositioning Fox's cymbals after Hulk smashed). Here the group reminds me a bit of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, some in Walsh's guitar playing, some in Fox's obvious debt to Mitch Mitchell. If the brilliance of this performance does nothing else, let it serve as a reminder that from 1969-71, the James Gang were one of the best power trios in rock music history. Yadig?

Seems to me
You don't wanna talk about it
Seems to me
You just turn your pretty head and walk away.