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Haggard�s classic honky-tonk brings real country to Britt By Bill Varble Merle Haggard has a play list that reaches from here to Bakersfield, the best honky-tonk band on the planet and a voice that should be declared a national monument. So you expect a good show, and it�s doubtful if anybody on the Britt hillside was disappointed in the show put on by country legend Haggard and his band, the Strangers, Sunday night. From the first notes of "Silver Wings" when that voice came in as sweet and smooth as country syrup, Haggard and the Strangers took listeners on a trip through the heart of country music, California style � not the stuff some Nashville yuppies conceived for this season�s country star hat act du jour, but the real thing. Seeing a Haggard you realize how we cheapen words like "legend" when we toss them around too freely. Merle doesn�t walk on stage. He makes an Entrance. Wearing black pants and shirt, running shoes, a beaded necklace (!) and a gray fedora, he came out smiling after keeping the audience waiting what seemed a few minutes longer than necessary. He went from "Silver Wings" directly to a sweet turn on his classic "Today I Started Loving You Again," then to a couple of honky-tonkers from "Back to the Barrooms." There�s something perversely endearing about rocking into the 21st century with a song like "Think I�ll Just Sit Here and Drink." Haggard is Haggard. He calls women "girls" and wishes they could still cook (like before microwaves!) and clean fish. He drops lyrical zingers into songs, railing at welfare and even, for Petesake, Social Security (in "Big City"). But the face looks like it belongs on Mount Rushmore and the voice moves you way down in the bones and the songs feel like they�ve always been there. Now over 60, Haggard lost his father when he was 9. He says his youth was like a Jimmy Rodgers song full of freight trains and hobo jungles and run-ins with the law that finally landed him in California�s notorious San Quentin thanks to a bungled burglary. He started playing guitar in the dives of Bakersfield�s Beer Can Hill area and hit the country charts in 1963 with "Sing a Sad Song." His next few singles, "Strangers," "Swinging Doors," "The Bottle Let Me Down," were hits, and he was picked up by Capitol Records. In 1966 he was the academy of Country Music�s male vocalist of the year. For many years, the California honky-tonk of Haggard and Buck Owens was a spiritual alternative to the too-slick, too-conservative Nashville hit machine. He borrowed vocal chops from Lefty Frizzell, Bob Wills and Jimmie Rodgers, and the Strangers added tight backup to die for. The ingredients haven�t changed much over the years, although Haggard grew from a rhythm strummer to a remarkable lead guitar player, as he demonstrated on "Working Man Blues." He�s also become a competent fiddle player over the years, as he showed on "Take Me Back to Tulsa," just one of the Bob Wills songs he did (complete with Wills-like calls to the band and the crowd). When Haggard does lost-love songs, your heart still breaks. When he does drinkin� songs, you still want a drink. Even a song like "Are the Good Times Really Over for Good" hits to the heart, despite the fact it�s beginning to sound not just quirky and cranky but dated (OK, Nixon like, but what does "Remember when you could still work" mean today?). Perhaps the highlight of the set was a soaring "Sing Me Back Home," with the Strangers turning it up and Merle�s voice rising clear and clean up the hill. Ray Wylie Hubbard turned in a sparkling acoustic opener, winning over the Hag�s folks as much with his humor as his tunes. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA