Long story short...working with Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard on a Jimmie Rodger's documentary...time goes by.  Dylan calls Merle to go

on road with him.  I get to go along on one of Merle's buses and cross America with the Hag and Bob Dylan.  The tour sold out in 2 days

on Bob Dylan's website...I was the only digital movie and still camera on the tour...with pen in hand I documented a historic concert

happening with two great Pioneer Troubadour Icons.  I was a hog in slop in hog heaven!!!!

 

I kissed my two kids bye and hopped a train from Paso Robles, California up the central coast to Seattle, Washington, where the Bob Dylan Spring

tour with Merle Haggard and Amos Lee was to set out for the near two month tour.  I boarded one of the Hag's buses and went on a magical mystery tour...After 36 years in the entertainment and music business, I must say that I have never seen so many standing ovations than I have seen for Bob

Dylan and Merle Haggard... each and every night of their Spring tour together.  There has not been one show since the tour started two
months ago that a person was left setting after the end of the last song from each of the icons.

 

flash forward for news article...Sept. 2006...

Back to 2005 Dylan Hag tour...

After some searching around on the Internet I find that this Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard tour might be kickin' up more dust than any music event

in a long time.  Kinda has the ring of when Dylan went to Nashville and teamed up with Johnny Cash and the synergy between the two not only created

the Nashville Skyline album and brought much of the recording industry to "tune town," but was a mark in the beginning of "country rock," that spurred

the "outlaw" movement and southern rock.  Or, when Gram Parsons teamed up with the Byrds...and there are some interesting links between Merle

and Gram and Dylan and the Byrds.

Dream Tour For  The Common Man
Tue, Feb 01 2005, Pollstar Magazine

The spirit of Woody Guthrie must be dusting off the old suitcases and getting ready to take to
the great highway again, with two of his most lauded musical descendants mounting a spring tour
of most West Coast dates so far.

 Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard are kindred spirit singer/songwriters; one is country and the
other a little bit rock ‘n' roll. These should be rollicking shows, with Bob bringing along his band
and Merle appearing with The Strangers.  Amos Lee will come along for the ride as well.

Intimate theater gigs with two superstars of the caliber of Dylan and Haggard don't come around
very often, and most of the tour dates confirmed so far include extended runs. "The Bob
Show" kicks off March 7 with a three-night stand at Seattle's Paramount Theater and heads
down the West Coast, hitting Portland, Ore., Oakland, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago on on East...

 

Ironies in the fire...paradoxes in the evolution of the life and times.  As one writer put it in an article, "Hearing Merle Haggard's combative,

love-it-or-leave-it anthem "Fightin' Side of Me" and Bob Dylan's primal, prophetic call-to-action "The Times They Are a Changin'" on the same

bill was one of many up-is-down, down-is-up, left is right and right is left moments Monday night as the two music legends opened a five-night

run at the Paramount in Seattle, Washington."

A few star sightings around the Dylan Haggard Train:                                   THE TOUR SCHEDULE

      DATE           CITY               VENUE
      March 7-9      Seattle, WA        Paramount Theatre
      March 11-12    Portland, OR       University of Portland -- Chiles Center
      March 14-16    Oakland, CA        Paramount Theatre
      March 21-23    Los Angeles, CA    Pantages Theatre
      March 25-26    Los Angeles, CA    Pantages Theatre
      March 28-29    Denver, CO         Fillmore Auditorium
      April 1-3      Chicago, IL        Auditorium Theatre
      April 5-6      Chicago, IL        Auditorium Theatre
      April 8-9      Milwaukee, WI      Eagles Ballroom
      April 15-17    Boston, MA         Orpheum Theatre
      April 22       Mashantucket, CT   Fox Theater
      April 24       Atlantic City, NJ  Borgata Resort Spa & Casino
      April 25-26    New York, NY       Beacon Theater
      April 28-30    New York, NY       Beacon Theater	

"It sold out in hours just about everyplace," Haggard says. "It's a prestigious thing for me. I'm thrilled."  The 11-city 39 show theater tour is the first time these two outlaws have toured together.  However, Dylan has been on the road doing stadium shows with Merle's saddle pal Willie Nelson.  In talking about the teaming up with Dylan, Haggard said, "It's a real honor, I probably wouldn't have done it with anybody else. I think our connection is real clear; Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Guthrie influenced both

of us. I just took it in one direction, he took it in another. Now here we've come, full circle.

The Jimmie Rodgers Saga Painting by Linda Standley-Anderson

Both artist are well known to have been influenced by, and are big fans of both Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Guthrie.  Both have done tribute albums to Jimmie Rodgers.  Merle released "Same Train, Different Time," in 1969.  In the liner notes of the album it says, "Like Willie Nelson, Haggard has found inspiration not mere monuments in the past ...Here he must also have felt a kinship

to Rodgers' constant wandering since there's a feeling of both intensity and amusement to his versions of this material.  Rodgers' songs may romanticize loneliness and the hobo's life but Haggard knows that doesn't mean they aren't  true, at least in

the right hands."

 

Dylan released in 1997,  the compilation "The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute, with Jimmie Rodgers songs on the CD by Jerry Garcia, Willie Nelson,

Bono and many other great stars...in the liner notes Dylan says, "Though he is claimed as The Father of Country Music, the title is limiting and deceiving in

light of today's country music and he wouldn't have understood it. In his time, he was better known as "The Singing Brakeman" or "Blue Yodeler" and

hence in some circles, he has come to be known as the "Man Who Started It All" which is more to the truth for he was a performer of force without

precedent with a sound as lonesome and mystical as it was dynamic. He gives hope to the vanquished and humility to the mighty.  Indeed, he sings

not only among his bawdy, upbeat blues and railroading songs, but also Tin Pan Alley trash and crooner lullabies as well.

Writer in Jazz Magazine said, "Arguably the world's greatest living country music singer and undeniably the greatest living country music songwriter, Merle Haggard has been writing, recording and performing for over forty years. He's charted over forty number-one country hits. While considered the most truly “country” of country artists, there has always been a strong influence of blues and especially jazz music in the sound of Haggard and his virtuoso group the Strangers.
 

They're selling postcards of the hanging They're painting the passports brown The beauty parlor is filled with sailors The circus is in town Here comes the blind commissioner They've got him in a trance One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker The other is in his pants And the riot squad they're restless They need somewhere to go As Lady and I look out tonight From Desolation Row

What do we say about  Bob Dylan?  There has been over 50 books written about him, and his Chronicles: Volume I is a great look at the man that has

mastered music and transformed and fused music and sounds since he arrived in New York from Hibbing.   After his many years as a troubadour and the

book we understand more his passion for music.  He is quick to let others know he has been influenced by the likes of Jimmie Rodgers, Woody Guthrie,

Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte and others.  We know he was born Robert Zimmer- man in Duluth in 1941, but he has

 reinvented him self so many times, does anybody know who Bob Dylan is?  And then there is the influence of Ramblin' Jack Elliott.

 

In his book he says, “Highway 61, the main thoroughfare of the country blues, begins about where I came from…Duluth to be exact. I always felt like I’d

started on it, always had been on it and could go anywhere from it, even down into the deep Delta country. It was the same road, full of the same contra-

dictions, the same one-horse towns, the same spiritual ancestors

The Mississippi River, the bloodstream of the blues, also starts up from my neck of the woods I was never too far away from any of it. It was my place in

the universe, always felt like it was in my blood."  Dylan is doing a great rendition of "Highway 61" on this tour.

 

Highway 61 Revisited... Is considered one of Dylan's best works, it is a  masterpiece of folk and rock.  The album was voted by Rolling Stone Magazine

as the 4th  of the best 500 Albums of all time.  I always knew that there were some interesting things that happened along this highway, so I Googled and

found some... Highway 61 Revisited was Dylan's sixth album released by Bob Dylan. Highway 61 stretches from New Orleans through Memphis and

Chicago through Hibbing, Minnesota, Dylan, is from Hibbing, he has much Mississippi blues in the album. Dylan grew up in a small Minnesota town, and 

as a youth he loved the blues and jazz coming up Highway 61.  "Like a Rolling Stone" was on the album. Robert Shelton, a Dylan biographer, said:

"Highway 61 became I think to him a symbol of freedom, a symbol of movement, a symbol of independence and a chance to get away from a life he

didn't want in that town." 1  Bessie Smith, the blues singer, died on Highway 61, while Elvis Presley grew up in housing projects along it and Martin Luther

King, Jr. was shot on Highway 61.

Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night
Told the first father that things weren't right
My complexion she said is much too white
He said come here and step into the light he says hmm you're right
Let me tell the second mother this has been done
But the second mother was with the seventh son
And they were both out on Highway 61.

Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored
He was tryin' to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61.

 

In the spirit of Jack Kerouac, Robert left Hibbing in 1959 on a Greyhound bus bound for Minneapolis, where he would introduce himself as Bob Dylan, and as

many writers have said over and over he continues to reinvent himself over and over again since that time... and continues to cover ground with the passion he

has for his music.  This dedication I am seeing first hand on this tour.  From the stage hands, to the sound crew, lighting, security and management.  This is

about the music and entertaining.  Dylan is a pro.   He is a band leader.  He is mysterious, and we love him for it.  He is on a never ending tour, just "like a

 rollin stone."

 

By the time they get to New York no telling what will change in music as we know it...

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship, My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip, My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels To be wanderin'. I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it. Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me, I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to. Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me, In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you. FROM MR. TAMBOURINE MAN BY BOB DYLAN

 

The curtain opens on the Hag...

 

Behind every great all-star performance are the true unsung heroes of the tour, the roadies.  Responsible for more equipment every night than some cheap

moving companies deal with all year, the roadies, stage crew, sound and light guys arrive in the city long before the show starts.  Smaller groups often hire

moving companies to move the gear, but big bands have their own 18-wheelers.  While the band members sleep in the hotel or cruise to the venue in a

chartered jet, the crew sets up the stage, flies the sound, hooks in the lights and effects, hangs the curtain, sets up the drums, amps, microphones and other instruments and gets everything just right for the band's arrival to sound check around 4:00 p.m. every afternoon.  If the show goes perfectly, nobody thinks

about the crew but if there are any mistakes, often a crew member is left applying for a job at the local moving companies before the night is over.  Then,

when the curtain falls they tear it all down, pack it up and load it back into the truck.  Often as soon as the last box is placed, it's hard driving through the

 night to the next city where it's done all over again.

 

Haggard walks on stage dressed in black, including fedora, with his band The Strangers, who have been on the road with him for over 4 decades, and

having been voted the "Touring Band of the Year," numerous times.  Merle goes right into  "Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink."  Later he tells the crowd

that he has the oldest touring bar band in the world. We have nurses instead of roadies.  He received 3 standing ovations before he had finished the fifth

song of the night.

 

"Vocally, Dylan's more guttural than ever, but he was also amazingly limber, playing his roughness for both laughs and pathos on "The Man in Me" and

rephrasing "Memphis Blues Again" with an ascending stop-time melody that was less sardonic than wistful. And his phrasing got especially loopy on "Mr.

Tambourine Man": "In the jingle-uh- jangle-uh-morning- ugh, I'll come-uh, following uh- yooouuu." For his second encore, Dylan tipped his hat to an alleged

co-writer with a lovely version of Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home," reported the Seattle Times.

Merle gets 3 standing ovations by the 5th song the first night in Seattle...You could see and feel how much they appreciated his genius,  even if not totally aware

of his music before the show, Merle went far to remind them that he has written a few songs and been down a few roads himself.   The audience would hang on

his every word and were quick to give him standing ovations, over and over through his performance with his touring band The Strangers.

 

After Merle leaves the stage there's a 15 minute stage setup and the curtain opens on the Bob Dylan show, with all the band members each night in semiformal

outfits.  Bob is usually wearing a cowboy cut suit, boots and cowboy hat.  At the same time these outlaws are in Seattle, Paul Allen's (Bill Gates partner in

Microsoft and a big music fan to say the least) EMP Experience Music Project has a Dylan exhibit across town, to underscore to his status as a literary icon and bestselling author. In Seattle Dylan does several songs from 2001's "Love and Theft" album, with old hits such as "Like A Rolling Stone," "All Along the

Watchtower," "Watching the River Flow" and "Mr. Tambourine Man."  He opened with  "Drifter's Escape."   Dylan sang "The Man in Me," from 1970's "New

Morning" album, which was followed by "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again," with Don Herron's pedal steel guitar solo taking us to
another Dylan convergence in his music.  Dylan and band also did "Moonlight" from the "Love and Theft" CD, and the anti-war song "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only

Bleeding)," with great response from the audience.  Among the newer ones in set were "Honest With Me,Cat's in the Well," and "Sugar Baby."

THE LEGENDS MEET... I had helped get Merle on his bus after his performance, I was standing down by the bus, Dylan's manager comes up to me and says that Dylan would like to meet Merle before he goes on...can I have him at the stage door in about 4 minutes.  Wow, I think "Merle is on bus taking off his boots and Frank is somewhere backstage.  So I call Frank and tell him that in few minutes Jeff wants Merle out here to meet Dylan, he says, "thanks, be right there."  I jump on the bus and tell Merle that in less than 4 minutes that Dylan would like to meet you out side at the stage door before he goes on. Merle looks at me and says, "sure."  He heads back of bus and puts his boots back on. He and I walk to the doorway where Jeff said to bring Merle.  Frank walks up, then like outa nowhere Dylan is standing there.  Dylan says, "Hey Haggard."  Haggard says, "Hey Dylan." They shake hands and Bob leans over to Merle and says, "Merle, sometime I want you to teach me how to hop a freight train."

When Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon,
Where I can watch her waltz for free
'Neath her Panamanian moon.
An' I say, "Aw come on now,
You must know about my debutante."
An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

THE STRANGERS...on the road for 40 years with Merle...Merle says they don't have roadies, they have nurses.  We have an ambulance that follows the bus...on this tour the following Strangers are in the band.  Long time drummer with the Strangers is Biff Adam, on bass is Kevin Williams, Doug Colosio for eight years has been on piano. Tim Howard on guitar, long time Stranger and a great steel player is Norm Hamlet, Norm doubles as a bus driver for the band buss.   On horn and sax is Don Markham, backup singer is Theresa Haggard, Merle's wife.  On fiddle and mandolin and from Dwight Yokam's band is Scott Joss.  Merle is on lead guitar and vocals. Frank, Fuzzy and Noel have been keeping the show on the road, with 3 buses moving the troubadours down the highway. My hat don't hang on the same nail too long. My ears can't stand to hear the same old song. An' I don't leave the highway long enough, To bog down in the mud. 'Cos I've got ramblin' fever in my blood. Caught this ramblin' fever long ago, When I first heard a lonesome whistle blow. If someone said I ever gave a damn, Man, they damn sure told you wrong. I've had ramblin' fever all along. Merle Haggard from Ramblin' Fever

Haggard and the Strangers rehearse and sound check

First two shows both Bob and Merle hang in the wings and watch each other's shows.  I can see and I hear that their is a mutual energy going on, and there

is a feeling that this is going to be one heck of a tour.  Merle is working on a new song...their is synergy in the room...Merle told the audience that he was

going to hang around his house for a few months and got a call from Bob Dylan and said wanted me to play on some gigs from Seattle to New York with

him and I asked him, Why?  Later Merle commented that at first he did not want to go because the money was not good enough, Haggard says, "I'm Not

an opening act."  They laugh, and Merle goes on with a song.

 

Tie die and deadheads, Seattle hipsters...Dylan stayed on the side of the stage and played his piano and harmonica all night never picking up the guitar once. 

They love the show... it is going to be hard for the critics to be critical from what I am seeing.

The tour is being opened each night by Amos Lee, a singer-songwriter whose light blues and folk style has a gentle and mystic sound.  Each night when their is

usually the noise of the audience finding the way to their seats for the show, these folks get seated fast and begin to enjoy the soft mellow voice and music of Amos Lee and his band.  He is like a young James Taylor, with some Dylan mixed in for those that like some comparisons. Jaron Olevsky is on bass, Fred Berman on drums, Nate Skiles on guitar, mandolin and trumpet.   Helping Amos Lee and band move down the road and stay up with Dylan and Haggard is Hollace Detwiler

as tour manager and Kenny Townsend is production manager.

 

Meet a few folks have tickets for 20 shows...tickets going for $200 to $300 bucks out front of venue. Talk to a lady that is taking buses, getting rides, taking train

to get to the shows and then standing out front hoping for a free ticket.  At Oakland she said she had seen every show.

Streets next to Paramount blocked off for the trucks and buses of Dylan and the Hag to park...great excitement around the movement...trucks, buses, crew, the union boys, security, fans looking for a peek at the legends, or get some music memorabilia signed.  There's always a feeling of confusion and excitement around the backstage door from the time the big trucks begin to unload until the band busses pull out for the next city. We jump on the "ole gray mare"...head back to the hotel on the river.  Merle, the band Frank and Darrell go in hotel in rooms each night.  I stay on the bus and have a bunk for sleep, bunk to keep my stuff and the desk is my office thus far...great place to document the tour from.  Getting great pics of the road, the tour buses, trucks, and the venues...soon we roll the cameras on more of the players on this Dylan and Haggard Track...I get a room from time to time, and hang in the hotels and restaurants with the guys.

Merle Haggard and Bob Dylan's buses in Seattle

I had the feelings after the first two shows that Dylan has some great country vibes going on...beyond touring with Willie Nelson and now Merle Haggard and wearing cowboy boots every night. I had thoughts back to when he did the Nashville Skyline album. In 1969 Dylan joined up with another country legend, when he recorded  Nashville Skyline with Johnny Cash.  Cash said about the album, "One that came out of that session was "Girl from the North Country" -- was a guest song on Bob Dylan's album. Bob Dylan's appearance brought a great deal of attention to Nashville, a lot of attention that a lot of my peers did not give him credit for, but still he brought a lot of attention on Nashville -- people like him and people to follow who recorded songs

in Nashville because Bob Dylan had..."

Charlie McCoy said, "It's probably the one biggest thing that ever happened to Nashville -- as a recording center of all kinds of music. Because after he came here,

it was like people... people in the rock music business all of a sudden said "Oh, wait a minute. Dylan went to Nashville, so it must be okay to go there."  Some say

that "Nashville Skyline" was a full fledged country album, and had the great "Lay Lady Lay," "To Be Alone With You," "I Threw It All Away," "Tonight I'll Be Staying

Here With You," and the duet with Johnny Cash. Johnny wrote the following on the album:

Before the show Buck Owens comes on Merle's bus.  They talk about old friends, the biz, and Merle sings him a couple new songs he is working on.  One he started writing the other night during the first shows in Seattle.  You can see the great friendship between these two great legends.  They talk about Jimmie Rodgers. Later Buck says, "Let's go see Dylan."  The small group with Merle and Buck head back to the backstage room where Dylan is with his band.  I walk in right behind the two country Icons...it was a great look of pleasure and surprise that was on Dylan's face when he saw Haggard and Owens standing just in the door and side by side.  Hawerd the feelings of some wild west old time movie with flashes to the future and back again.  Buck has taken Dylan one of his famous red, white and blue guitars to give to him.  You can feel the magic in the room with these three legends.  Interesting to me that Dylan is doing a Merle Haggard and a Buck Owens song in his show...musical synergy.

Merle plays Buck Owens a new song of Kris Kristofferson's he is doing.

Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens picture by Karen Rotan

The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom I stood up to say good-bye like all the rest And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell 'Let my guitar playing friend do my request.' (Let him...) Sing me back home with a song I used to hear Make my old memories come alive Take me away and turn back the years Sing Me Back Home before I die Dylan was singing Merle's SING ME BACK HOME nightly

 
Some paper in Springfield, MO says, "Merle Haggard seemed to be in very fine shape, always a marvelous singer and picker and  classy as country gets. His band, the Strangers, remain impeccable. Look  great and play like you'd expect. Excellent vibe throughout. Merle Haggard and the Strangers are perhaps the highlight in terms of energy and connection with the audience.  On this night, people stood up again and again as Merle cranked out his classics.  He has a presence on stage

that is something to see.  As the elder statesman in this Show, I suppose he knows he has to set the standard."
 

The red velvet curtain backdrop is beautiful and the show's shows lighting is very profes- sional, while the sound men fight to find just the right mix in the art theaters.  During one song Merle stopped and said, "You know these theaters are built for a man to set on a stool here on stage with a Martin guitar and sing and play, and the entire audience can hear him, then we come in here with all this electricity and f____ it up."  The audience claps in approval.  However after the Seattle show the sound guys had seemed to have all their problems worked out. Merle said, "I quit smokin' weed in 1992, but being here in Oregon I might start again. You got a fine state here.  That stuff might not make you live longer if you quit, but it will seem like it."  Then he went into "Ramblin' Fever." Dylan starts his show with "Maggies Farm"...Standing backstage you see how serious the band, crew and Dylan are about the show and the music.  Professional is the order of the night.  After some thirty plus years in the music biz I have never seen a show with so many standing ovations.  During the music dead silence, and more standing ovations than you can shake a stick at.

The first thing I remember knowing, Was a lonesome whistle blowing, And a young un's dream of growing up to ride; On a freight train leaving town, Not knowing where I'm bound, No-one could change my mind but Mama tried. One and only rebel child, From a family, meek and mild: My Mama seemed to know what lay in store. Despite all my Sunday learning, Towards the bad, I kept on turning. 'Til Mama couldn't hold me anymore. And I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole. No-one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried. Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied. That leaves only me to blame 'cos Mama tried.   MERLE HAGGARD ------------------------------------------------------ I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. No, I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. Well, I try my best To be just like I am, But everybody wants you To be just like them. They sing while you slave and I just get bored. I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

"Hey, were one step from being homeless... we got a backstage pass...the circus is in town."

 

Great "Wild West" feeling in the music.  Dylan is doing some boot skootin'..."Highway 61" and they roar by the second note and they have the flashbacks

remembering how the Grateful Dead would not know what song Jerry was going to play, but by the second note they were playing the song he chose. 

Haggard is himself playing without a set list and the band has after all the years a second sense, when it comes to Mr. Haggard and the next song he

wants to play.  By the second note...they all got it.

 

Donnie Herron on steel in Bob's band and the sound is giving me a feeling beyond Jerry Garcia in the New Riders of the Purple Sage, which really came

about as a creation of jam sessions when he had gotten him a new steel guitar in Hawaii, what many called psychedelic country, and the sound that came

out when Gram Parsons with JD Mannis on steel in the Sweetheart of the Rodeo  album, that history may someday mark as the beginning of "country

rock," or when Jimmie Rodgers began to introduce the steel guitar into music in the early  days with Billy Burks on steel.  The rock/country/western sound

of the steel blending with  the violin/ fiddle of Elana Fremerman are giving such great rearrangements to "Just Like a Woman" and an especially delicate

"Girl of the North Country."

 

The audiences have been a mix of old and young, cowboys in hats, hippies in tie-dies, deadheads, Dylan devotees,  and "A" list celebs.  Many baby

boomers bringing their kids to see the icon that  they have known and loved for several decades and Haggard fans. This has no doubt  opened a new

market of fans by the tens of thousands to Merle Haggard and Dylan again recreates himself as he has done since the days he was singing Woody

Guthrie songs and playing in the coffee houses in New York.

Life is like a mountain railroad With an engineer that's brave We must make the run successful From the cradle to the grave Watch the curves, the fills, and tunnels Never falter, never fail Keep your hand upon the throttle And your eyes upon the rail   Haggard

As a backstage observer I must say that with the Dylan and Haggard bands and crew it is the music and the job that are important.  No party backstage.  There

is a show to do. The Haggard team is a little more relaxed with a certain amount of backstage guest on the stage and in and out of his bus through the night. 

Both men have shown their commintment to their music and are there to perform.  Has been a very smooth connection between the Dylan camp, the Haggard

Camp and the UPSTAGE boys running the lights, sound and production of the project.

 

On stage and in interviews Haggard said, "Dylan is the Marlon Brando of music."  One show he said, "Dylan is Einstein...man this guy is a genius."  He has

called him "the great Bob Dylan," and points out that he is just the opening act, and just a bar band and not used to such big cultured audiences.

 

The stage and dress of the bands has been very eloquent, which is irony for two known rebels and outlaws to be dressed dressed to kill, with their bands as

well wearing great looking "western" style clothes, the Dylan gang being a little more dapper in his black western wear and wearing a black cowboy hat with

a cowboy image it is said he has been adorning for a couple of years now.

 

The set design with the red velvet curtain, a background later of stars and then the Dylan logo with a sense of majesty and royalty.  As they stood on stage

each night with their no bow, no thanks stance as the curtain closed gave me a feeling a some modern day Shakespeare actor/musicians that just gave the performance of their life, and they knew it, and Dylan takes the prize fighter stance looking at the audience like they are some strangers on a future wild west

town, and they might draw guns at the drop of a hat.

 
Paramount Theater in Oakland, California

By the Oakland shows the national press have picked up on the tour with United Press, the Hollywood Reporter, Variety Magazine, Associate Press, Reuters, 

and all the local papers giving coverage to the show.  We feel like the shows up untill LA will be the rehearsal and the real tour begins in Los Angels at the

Pantages Theater.   Oakland, California shows at the beautiful Paramount Theater on March 14, 2005.  Bonnie Raitt is backstage, and Pearce Brosdan,

Bob Weir and Bill Krutzman of the Grateful Dead, the one and only Ramblin' Jack Elliott.  The set list for the show is:

Drifter's Escape
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
The Man In Me (Bob was center stage with just his harp - no piano)
Highway 61 Revisited
Can't Wait
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Under The Red Sky
Bye And Bye (Donnie on violin)
Honest With Me
Mr. Tambourine Man
Summer Days
(encore)
A-11 (song by Hank Cochran) and cut by Buck Owens
All Along The Watchtower

I am setting backstage with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Weir comes over showing some excitement.  After Jack introduces us, Weir tells Jack, "Wow, Jack

I just met Merle Haggard."   Weir had gone out front to the merchandise booth and bought a Haggard CD.  Backstage was a feel of time past and future with

Bob Weir and Bill Krutzman of the Greateful Dead, Bonnie Raitt, actor Pearce Brosden, the CEO of the Jerry Garcia estate, managers for Aaron Neville,

TV/video producer Len Del Amico...Dylan waves to Ramblin' Jack as they lead him to the stage.

 

In all the shows, Dylan has been playing a portable keyboard and standing crouched into the microphone sometimes making moves of a band leader and

sometimes dancing to the music.  Each time he picks up the harmonica the crowd applauds, sometimes while doing his harmonica solos he will leave his

curled position behind the mic and take center stage. Joel Selvin, San Fran Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic said, "Now that he is a piano player, he has

adopted a new singing style, too.  Crooning and pushing his voice hard at the same time, Dylan made little turns into his upper register, tiny melodic burnishes

that finished lines unexpectedly.  He needs that surprise.  He pushes at the boundaries of expectation and, if the result is sometimes chaos, it's impossible to

tell it he is the master of his own destiny on-stage or just hanging on for dear life."

"Haggard  gave a smooth, assured demonstration of the high art of honky-tonk singing, bringing along an extraordinarily efficient troupe he called "a polished beer-joint band."  Haggard, 67, knows that nuance is the highest aspiration of art and he invested a vacuous pop song such as "Unforgettable"... when it came to playing, though, he was all business.  he opened with a 20 minute volley of song after song before stopping to say, "Hello, I'm Merle Haggard."  The crowd exploded into a standing ovation.  He played a dozen of his own hits, but closed with songs from his heros, Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills." SAN FRANCISCO TRIBUNE

It's four a.m. in New York City three a.m. in Dallas
The night is still early here in Frisco
Market street's still going the same old shows are showing
And I'm still all alone here in Frisco

They say it's raining in Chicago and it's cold and clear in Denver
Been windy all night long here in Frisco
Troley cars are clinging the big Bay Town's swinging
And I'm still all alone here in Frisco   HAGGARD\

LOS ANGELES...PRESS

Dylan, Haggard defy the year... Okie and the poet thrill the Pantages--LA Times

 

Besides Merle Haggard telling the sell out audience at the grand Pantages Theater  in Los Angeles that, "There is something that Bob and I have in common,

we are big fans of Jimmie Rodgers (the Singing Brakeman)," and to add to the "train" mystique of the tour, the LA Times had the following, "With a lineup that includes flashy Elana Fremerman on violin and Donnie Herron on banjo and pedal steel guitar, Dylan and the six-piece unit roared  with the fury of a LOCOMOTIVE, BARRELING DOWN THE TRACKS SO FAST, that if you  missed a note or a vocal line you'd be run over."  And, "...or when he (Dylan)
turned  "The  Times They Are A-Changin" inside out to make the folk tune into a MODERN LOCOMOTIVE EXPRESS."

 

Merle has some 40 number one country hits to draw from and countless other songs that he does of his favorites Lefty Frizzle, Jimmie Rodgers, Buck Owens,

and others.  At the opening show at the Pantages he did Grammy winning song "Mama Tried," "Silver Wings" and "The Bottle Let Me Down."

 

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter)  Merle Haggard says he didn't want to go on tour with Bob Dylan at first. The money wasn't good enough,

Haggard says. "I'm not an opening act."  The country titan changed his mind after he watched the film "Runaway Jury." Its soundtrack includes Norah Jones'

version of Dylan's "Heart of Mine." That affecting performance got Haggard thinking.  "I said, f---, I guess I'll have to go with him," he says, in his ever-blunt way.

Haggard joked often with the audience and poked fun at his band the Strangers, and him- self for a missed note or lyric during the show.  He goofed on "Okie

From Muskogee," then he stopped mid-song and told the audience he had a "senior moment."  He also mentioned his mentioned his memory lapse on

favorite pastime he shared with his friend Willie Nelson.  "Me and Willie can't remember anything," Haggard said, "But we love everybody."

 

About Merle The LA Voice said, "Merle Haggard strode out to respectful applause which continued throughout his set. I didn't expect a lot from him, but he

quickly laid to rest any doubt as to his considerable talents. His voice is in as fine a form as one would want from a country singer, and that's saying a lot. He

also took most of the guitar solos himself. The monologues were funny and self deprecating, and he stopped songs midway often to joke and tease his band

mates ("the oldest bar band in the world"). They were cut off after playing a snippet of a song about the benefits of marijuana; Haggard explained that he didn't
have the motivation to finish writing it."

 

In LA some front section seats were selling for a grand.  I go outside before Merle goes on and climb on his bus and there is Ringo Star, wow.  We would also

see Jack Nicholson, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill that night on Merle's bus.  The night that Merle did not sing "Unforgettable" Natile Cole was in the audience. 

A few nights later Merle said he could kick himself in the butt for not knowing she was there.  Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby being among his key influences in

music, you could hear him crooning' for sure.

Wish I was down on some blue bayou,
With a bamboo cane stuck in the sand.
But the road I'm on, don't seem to go there,
So I just dream, keep on bein' the way I am.
Wish I enjoyed what makes my living,
Did what I do with a willin' hand.
Some would run, ah, but that ain't like me.
So I just dream and keep on bein' the way I am.

 

For those that were of the mind set that Merle was from the establishment because of the song he wrote for his dad, "Okie From Muskogee," he reinvented

himself with numerous references to his love for marijuana in his 55 minute set, and received a great ovation for his song about growing old, "I wish I could

Be 30 Again."  The LA Weekly had the statement, "The ironical nature of Bob Dylan choosing the Okie from Muskogee as tour mate is inescapable,

particularly as it can be persuasively argued that Haggard is the perfected and superior artist: a vocalist of illimitable sensitivity, a lyricist of dazzling reach

and expressive power, and a guitarist capable of both mule-kick impact and angelic restraint...The influence Haggard has had on several generations of

players is demonstrably greater than Zim's--there are a small army of arena-level performers who owe Haggard a vast debt..."

 

One writer said about Dylan's band, "His backing band proved adept at roadhouse rocking, country-tinged maneuvers and blues styling...The group tore

it up during the ramshackle boogie of "Highway 61 Revisited"  and later shifted into swing mode for the jumping "Summer Days."

 

BOB DYLAN SET LIST IN LOS ANGLES

 
"The curtain raised the ultimate time on Bob Dylan And His Band, who stood with six-guns a-blazin',  firing "Drifter's Escape" at the folks gathered there," a

writer doing a review on Bob's website said.  The LA Times said, "Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard are such masters of their craft that they make it hard for

critics not to look like pushovers, especially at the concert as warm and frequently thrilling as the freewheeling one they put on Monday at the Pantages

Theatre in Los Angeles."
 

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
 

At 63, Dylan is the ultimate self-revisionist, always toying with his songs and altering his phrasing for unpre-
dictable dips, rises and punctuation. He spent most of the time behind an upright piano, leaning over into the
microphone and occasionally blowing his distinctively ragged harmonica.

The latest edition of his backing band proved adept at roadhouse rocking, country-tinged maneuvers and
blues stylings. All the guys were decked out in gray suits, a contrast to Dylan‘s black Western wear. The
group tore it up during the ramshackle boogie of "Highway 61 Revisited" and later shifted into swing mode
for the jumping "Summer Days."   HOLLYWOOD REPORT
 

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