Winter ’94 4 o. , N Vol. 2 SS UU NN DD “I started out even, you know. Now I’m five million in the hole . fo rty-one number one records and five million dollars down. How does that compute? If I thought we could get wealthy enough that you could beat cancer and AIDS and all the other things that are after our asses, then I’d be worried about finances real seriously. I don’t really care if I’m broke or not because I can walk down the street and get me a goddamn hamburger with a song .” —Merle Haggard , Journal of Country Music “I’m very country influenced, from quite young . Merle Haggard .” —Mick Jagger , Guitar Player HREE YEARS AGO I SANG writing, performing, and singing up to snuff— his footing, like Archie Moore in his two Twith Dave Alvin at the Ritz in New still creative—but radio ignores you. The busi - hundredth fight. The yuppies and drunk York when he opened for Merle ness folks in Nashville act like they’d be happy lawyers began shouting requests half way Haggard. Merle performed for over two to embalm and box-up Merle and George Jones through the second song. Haggard looked hours; a flawless waltz through his catalog. and Cash, and put them away on a shelf in the baffled and twenty years older than at the No bullshit. No set list. He picked out a Hall of Fame. Ritz show. Another night, another bad gig. song, counted it off, sang soulfully and I talked to Haggard for a minute before the I thought of Lefty Frizzell playing out his pointed out all of the solos. I’d grown up show. He looked past me with that hundred final years, drunk, on Army bases in Green - listening to Merle on the West Coast in the yard stare. The death row smile. He warmed land and Guam. The Tramps gig was like 60s. I was struck again by the quality of up when he found out I was from California. seeing Mozart playing piano in a border the material and the depth of that singing He started in on some blues stories about whorehouse . something like that. Pick voice. The audience, mostly under thirty, Johnny Cash and the Collins Kids. He was just your own metaphor. Haggard is the one be - seemed to be discovering Haggard for the getting into it when the road manager pulled lievable heir to Hank Williams and Lefty first time. They’d discovered Johnny Cash a him away. They handed him his telecaster and Frizzell; so here’s Haggard at Tramps and few years before. pointed to the stage. Garth Brooks is playing stadiums. I’m not Merle did an encore and Two years later he returned out to demean hard working artists, but packed up. The audience INSIDE to NewYork. I took a girlfriend Brooks, in the interviews I’ve read, seems wouldn’t leave. They kept to see him at Tramps. She was more concerned with the quality of the t- stomping. The roadies had to PASS THE a big Lefty Frizzell fan; I knew shirts he sells than actually crafting lasting set up the drums again and PICANTE: DUG she’d love Merle. Tramps is a country songs. (Haggard: “I don’t really bring Merle off the bus for HEADS SOUTH TO loud, obnoxious New York understand the Garth thing . he’s a nice another encore. He seemed “roots” bar with inflated drink kid, but he’s not turning my crank.” Amen.) genuinely moved and amazed OLD EL PASO prices, wired waitresses, and a A few weeks later, I talked to Dave Alvin that anyone in New York really page 5 fifty thousand dollar sound about co-producing a Haggard tribute gave a shit. Here was a man CHRISTMAS CASH: system that feeds back all record. A group of roots writers singing caught up in that legendary night. It was a step down for Merle songs. It would have to be a good rut Johnny Cash had experi - ONE MORE ROUND Haggard. Merle stumbled on one, with believable artists. The tribute enced: what does a legend do Page 12 stage, wavered, slid into “Mis - record concept has been done to death and in the later years? You’re still ery and Gin,” and tried to find You don’t have very far to go to page 4 HAG GARD ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION continued from cover most of those records are inconsistent. Dave . there is probably enough great Haggard she named Haggard’s “Big City” as her favorite liked the Haggard idea, and he recorded for an songs to fill ten tribute records. We agreed to go song. I called and left her a message, and she appropriate roots label, Hightone Records. ahead. cut the track with Jim Rooney in Nashville. It The owners of Hightone, Larry Sloven and We wanted Merle on the record, but it was was coming together. Near the end, Dave Alvin Bruce Bromberg, were major Haggard fans. difficult to penetrate his fortress on Mt. Shasta; They supported the project from the start. the headquarters of “Hag, Inc.” He had his A few months later I got a call that there hands full. He was five million dollars in debt On modern country: “Some of this stuff was news about the project in Billboard. A pro - and hadn’t been played on country radio in five I hear sounds like rock and roll strained years—yet folks were doing tribute albums and I movies on him, and the CMA was inducting through milquetoast. Everything f I don’t get the respect and airplay that him into the Hall of Fame. In addition to all that, sounds like the same line-dance tempo. I think we deserve with this album he had to stay on the bus and make a living. I don’t give a damn about line dancing. We began recording in L.A. with tracks by (1994) , I’m going to make one more. I’m There’s no soul, there’s no feel, there’s no Katy Moffatt, Rosie Flores, Peter Case, Dave going to call it On The Edge of Extinction. Alvin, and myself. David Lindley, Butch Han - story. I’m just a little blacker than that. It’s going to be an environmentally cock, and Ian Tyson were supposed to be on In fact, I’m thinking of doing some tours oriented album. And then I’m going to do the record, but it never worked out. Others through the South for black people.” something else with my life.” recorded on their own and sent the tracks. John Doe from X cut a track in California and —Merle Haggard , New York Times —Merle Haggard , New York Times Robert Earl Keen was working on the play “Chippy” in Philly and got the band (Lloyd Maines and crew) to back him on “Daddy ran into Dwight Yoakam in a clothing store in ject on Arista. Wrong project. We found out Frank.” Joe Ely finished his track at his ranch in L.A. Dave told him about the record and there was another Haggard tribute record hap - Austin. Steve Young recorded his track solo in Dwight was into it. He cut his track in Venice, pening in Nashville. I got a hold of the pro - Nashville: the heart breaking, bluesy, “Shop - California, at Mad Dog. Just Dwight and his ducer, Bruce Bouton, who used to play steel ping For Dresses.” guitar. with Ricky Skaggs. Bruce said he was recording Lucinda Williams likes to work against the “the stars doing Merle’s hits,” but our album T final deadline. Her track was complete the day and theirs would be compatible. He was right here’s the guy I’d love to be and the before the mastering. The cover art was put together by the same artist who worked on guy I am, and I’m somewhere Dave Alvin’s King of California . Photos were in between. In deep water, you know. culled from the Bakersfield archives, and Bruce Bromberg found a pair of Haggard tickets from Swimming to the other shore.” the 60s that appear on the sleeve. There’s also a shot of the old Blackboard Lounge where —Merle Haggard , Journal of Country Music Merle and Buck Owens and Tommy Collins jammed on Saturday afternoons in Bakers - field. Dave and I kept working on persuading Lu - Besides the artists and great songs, there’s a IT’S cinda Williams to cut a song. She’d moved to lot of legendary guitar players on the record: EA- Nashville and got a deal with American Eddy Shaver (plays with “Shaver” and has CALENDAR S AIN! Records. We had to have Lucinda on this toured with Yoakam), Amos Garrett, David SON AG record. I was also thinking of Billy Joe Shaver, Grissom (Joe Ely and Mellencamp), Andrew and kept trying to contact him. No luck. I went Hardin (who’s played with me for a decade or out to work a rodeo in Innistall, Alberta, so), Gurf Morlix (LucindaWilliams), Greg Leisz rounded a corner of the arena, and ran into (Matthew Sweet, k.d. lang), Rosie Flores, Barry Billy Joe and his band. He said he’d love to be on Tashian (Barry and the Remains, Gram Par - the album. Watching Shaver that night was sons), Lloyd Maines, and Dave Alvin. akin to seeing Hank Williams backed by the We opened the trap door of Haggard’s Stones. Raw and direct. We cut his track, “Ram - catalog and rediscovered a hundred great blin’ Fever,” in Nashville.