The Dylan and Haggard tour heads out of LA
for Denver, Colorado. The bus and the truck
drivers are talking about taking I 15
to New Mexico and get on
I 25 from Albuquerque and on
through Santa Fe and on up to Colorado.
The tour has two days to travel but some of the
buses go on through the night.
Seems
their is talk about snow on the 70, so better head
East then North. The Haggard group
head on the road...Dylan and band head to rooms,
then private plane to Denver..
Denver show at the Fillmore took on more
a honkytonk concert feeling in the Fillmore, a big
general admission facility.
Couple
of thousand or more were watching all three performances by Dylan, Haggard and Lee standing
on the floor. Friday night you got the feeling
that there were people even hanging from
the rafters. The stage was much smaller and put
both Dylan and Haggard in a tighter space
to do their magic.
Merle did a sting of
beer drinking songs that got the folks a jumpin'.
Merle Haggard and Scott Joss
MERLE
INTRODUCES HIS BAND THE STRANGERS AS THE
OLDEST BEER JOINT BAND IN THE WORLD...
Merle would do
this fun intro of the Strangers at most shows. He would ask the
folks for a
little of their time to introduce the Strangers. Then the
strangers would all
turn
around and shake hands, wave, say HI to each other as if theywere first
meeting...
The Haggard camp all stay back at the hotel
for the night, then by Wednesday morning the buses are pulling out of the hotel in
Denver and headed East.
We drive miles and miles of
high plains with a gradual decent from
the mile high city. Down the road we pull the three
Haggard buses into truck stop to
refuel.
Take some pictures of old railroad caboose.
Merle is on his bus and they are cooking
up some food so they don't have to eat the road
food.
The truck stops and road restaurants
are so often the only place to eat when traveling
down the highways from gig to gig.
Dylan's band bus parked and ready to roll "out of here
Buffalo Benford is on the road filming
There must be some kind of way out of here, Said the joker to the thief. There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief. Businessmen, they drink my wine, Plowmen dig my earth. None of them along the line Know what any of it is worth. No reason to get excited,” The thief he kindly spoke. There are many here among us Who feel that life is but a joke. But you and I, we've been through that, And this is not our fate. So let us not talk falsely now, The hour is getting late. All along the watchtower, Princes kept the view, While all the women came and went — Barefoot servants too. Outside in the cold distance, A wildcat did growl. Two riders were approaching, and The wind began to howl.
In 1968, Jimmie Hendrix recorded Dylan's "All
Along The Watchtower" on his Elect-
ric Lady Land album...the song was released
on Dylan's John Wesley Harding album in
1968. Many other artists have covered
it, including Eric Clapton, Neil Young, U2, The Dave
Matthews Band and The Grateful Dead. Dylan
was so impressed with Jimi's version that
Dylan for years played it the way that
Jimi had recorded it. There was many shows the
Grateful Dead played this Dylan song...This
song was on Dylan's first album after his
debilitating 1966 motorcycle accident.
Rocky Mountain News writer John Lehndorff
said that "Merle haggard has been on the road with his band, The Strangers, since
Lyndon Johnson ran the White House. That's 40 years worth of shows that "kind of mush together
in my memory," he says." Merle looks back on another night in Denver. It was
at the Grizzly Rose on Sept 12, 2001, the day after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers.
He walked on stage that night and played "Fighting Side of Me."
Dylan and company will take a private jet
to Chicago. Right after the show the Haggard troupe
head on out of Denver for Chicago.
There is a travel day in between the opening night in the
windy city. Merle likes to stay
in hotels that are little out of the city, so not as much problem to
find places to park the 3 buses.
Oh my name it is nothin' My age it means less The country I come from Is called the Midwest I's taught and brought up there The laws to abide And that the land that I live in Has God on it's side
Bob Dylan
After Merle's set on the closing night
of a 5 day run at the very beautiful Auditorium Theater
a group of friends and his band had a
surprise birthday party for
him in the backstage band
room. During the party the door
opened and quietly Bob Dylan appeared. He came in
carrying a crinkled up Whole Foods
grocery
sack. He walked up and handed it to Merle and
whispered something to Merle, then turned
around and walked out the door and went on stage
where the band was waiting to start the
show. Merle stood there holding the sack and said to
the group of friends, "Talkative
fellow isn't he...left me here
holding the bag." Merle had said
few days back on his bus that he respects
Dylan's ability to remain so mysterious. Merle's next CD is to be titled "Chicago
Wind." Just click and take a visit to:
MerleHaggard.com
and check out his music.
Dylan continues to defy expectations "Maybe the beauty of his artistry lies in not knowing what Dylan is
willing to give, four decades after he first
hit the scene. A lack of expectations opens the ears and mind
to accept whatever comes next...Perhaps this
is why I say Bob Dylan was amazing onstage Friday night at Chicago's
acoustically perfect and aesthetically
pleasing Auditorium Theater. Dylan has surrounded himself with
gusty talent of a seemingly country ilk:
players of lap steel, banjo, bass fiddle, guitars and fiddle.
Dressed in a black cowboy suit, with a line
of buttons punctuating the sides of his pants and the front of his
coat, he donned a hat halfway through.
Daily South Side paper.
WE PULL INTO CHICAGO FOR A 5
DAY RUN
Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard at the Auditorium Theatre
Chicago
It was easy to be sideswiped by sheer legacy Friday when Bob
Dylan and Merle Haggard arrived to play the first of five nights
at the Auditorium Theatre. Dylan, the most influential rock
songwriter of his generation, and Haggard, the most influential
country songwriter of his generation, both came of age in the
‘60s when both genres played on opposite sides of the fence.
Now, decades later, there is commonality. Dylan, 63, and
Haggard, 68, are in a more assured stage in their artistic lives
where all they have to do is show up and play the songs. Their
songbooks keep them one step ahead of the seduction of nostalgia
that traps some of their peers in self-parody or irrelevance.
Playing back-to-back in a single evening, their similarities,
not their differences, became obvious. Their songs have endured
the times in which they were written and are bound by working
class agitation, a blurring of genres and demure humor.
Great show by the Hag in Chicago each night...
Again Merle goes into his "Thirty Again"
and the audience who most run the same age track
that Dylan and the Hag ride for sure identifies...
"They say life begins at 50, we've been lied to
my friend. I wish I was thirty again."
Hag says, "I don't know how old Dylan is...but I am as old
as the hills." One journalist said,
"Haggard is a hoot." Merle told me on his bus..."The say life begins at
50, but don't tell you it ends at 51."
Down every road there's
always one more city
I'm on the run the highway
is my home
I raised a lot of cane back
in my younger days
While my mama used to pray
my crops would fall
Why I'm a hunted fugitive
with just two ways
Out run the law or spend
my life in jail
Id like to settle down
but they won't let me
A FUGITIVE MUST BE A ROLLIN'
STONE
I'm lonely but I can't afford
the luxury
of having the one I love
to come along
she'd only slow me down
and they'd catch up w/me
for he who travels fastest
travels alone.
THE FUGITIVE by Merle Haggard
8 and 9th of April the locomotion heads into Milwaukee, Wisconsin
at the Eagles Ballroom.
Merle has been putting on one incredible
show after the other. The standing ovations go for the entire
set...he takes off his hat and glasses
and looks
at the audience and they give him a standing ovation.
He seems to be performing with such a
country crooner style...cowboy with some Bing Crosby
and Frank Sinatra pizzazz. Great
response when Merle brings his wife Theresa up to do the great
Johnny Cash song "Jackson."
Some one in the audience yells out, "Swinging
Doors"...Merle pretends that he looks down at a set
list on the floor, which by the way their
never is one...
Merle like Dylan and Jerry Garcia, just goes out
on the edge and plays what comes to him
next...leaving The Strangers listening for that first note so
they can join in...anyway, Merle says,
"Sure, that is on the list," and goes into the song to huge applause.
Though many might not be sure what songs
and hits Merle recorded, but when he goes into one of his
40 plus number one hits...they remember
and go..."yea, I have heard that..."
DYLAN SET LIST FOR THE TWO MILWAUKEE SHOWS
1. To Be Alone With You
2. To Ramona
3. Cat's In The Well
4. Make You Feel My Love
5. Highway 61 Revisited
6. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
7. Love Sick
8. Absolutely Sweet Marie
9. Tough Mama
10. Floater (Too Much To Ask)
11. Standing In The Doorway
12. Down Along The Cove
—
13. Mississippi
14. All Along The Watchtower
1. Maggie's Farm
2. The Man In Me
3. Lonesome Day Blues
4. I Don't Believe You
5. Ballad Of Hollis Brown
6. Stuck Inside Mobile w/ Memphis Blues Again
7. Girl From The North Country
8. Honest With Me
9. Ballad Of A Thin Man
10. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum 11. I Believe In You
12. Highway 61 Revisited
—
13. Like A Rolling Stone
14. All Along The Watchtower
dd
The boys and girls of UPSTAGING continue to pull off their part of the production with perfect execution... the load-in and out is such a huge part of this and any tour...stay tuned for more on our HAGGARD HOPS THE DYLAN TRAIN DVD, where we plan on telling more of the
roadiestory...
Detroit, Michigan
DYLAN DETROIT SET LIST
1. Tombstone Blues
2. I'll Remember You
3. Lonesome Day Blues
4. This Wheel's On Fire (Bob Dylan/Rick Danko) 5. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
6. Watching The River Flow
7. John Brown
8. Under The Red Sky
9. Highway 61 Revisited
10. Bye And Bye
11. Absolutely Sweet Marie
12. Masters Of War
—
13. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
14. All Along The Watchtower
The road...truckstops...hotels...airports...busses...trucks...stages
"On the road again...makin' music with my friends."
Willie Nelson
Buffalo, New York
"Truckin' Back to Buffalo..."
13th day of April we pull into Buffalo,
New York to the Shea's Performing Arts Center.
It's a beautiful newly renovated theatre
with great acoustics, which it perfect for the sets
the boys are about to play. The
Buffalo crowd holds true to their lively music roots that
so many great artists have sung about in
the past.
Haggard took the stage for a ride the a
foot stompin', bull ridin' , cowboy way that only Merle
can do. Dressed in full rodeo going
gear, he treated the East Coast to something they
don't see everyday... pure country soul.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any
rowdier, Mr. Dylan once again, to no avail, continues to astound his die-hard fans
by putting together a show that got the fans to leave their seats
so they could find a spot to dance. The set list
mirrored the mood of the night (see below).
Even Bob, the ultimate road warrior, touring
since 1988 straight, seemed to have more
luster than usual.
"Being true to yourself
that was the thing. I was more of a cowpuncher than a Pied Piper."
Mr. Bob Dylan
It just so happens that the boys met up
with me there and I hopped on the Haggard/Dylan
freight train barreling East.
(Michelle DiFrank)
Frank Mull, long time friend of the Hag's and
wears many hats for him over the years
Merle is on the road again...
Too many highways
Too many bi ways
Too many canyons
Too many turns
Too many bright lights
Too many long nights
And she is one bridge I
don't want to burn
I hate to leave her, with
tears in her eyes
The longer I have her, the
harder she cries
Drivin' beats workin', but
drivin's a chore...
THE HAG
JJ
DYLAN BUFFALO SET LIST 1. The Wicked Messenger
2. She Belongs To Me
3. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
4. Queen Jane Approximately
5. Cold Irons Bound
6. Desolation Row
7. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With Memphis Blues Again
8. Man In The Long Black Coat
9. Cat's In The Well
10. Ballad Of Hollis Brown
11. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
12. Like A Rolling Stone
13. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
14. All Along The Watchtower
She
Belongs to Me
She's got everything she
needs, she's an artist, she don't look back.
She can take the dark out
of the nighttime, and paint the daytime black.
You will start out standing,
proud to steal her anything she sees.
But you will wind up peeking
through her keyhole, down upon your knees.
She never stumbles, she's
got no place to fall.
She's nobody's child, the
Law can't touch her at all.
She wears an Egyptian ring,
that sparkles before she speaks.
She's a hypnotist collector,
you are a walking antique.
Bow down to her on Sunday,
salute her when her birthday comes.
For Halloween give her a
trumpet, and for Christmas, buy her a drum.
kk
Gas em up
boys...we got white lines to ride
Big wheels rollin', big
wheels rollin' movin on
big wheels rollin got a
keep em goin,
big wheels rollin' movin
on
The white man is the life
line to a nation
And men like Will and Sonny
make it move
Livin like a gypsy always
on the go
doin what they best know
how to do
Jamin' gears got to be a
fever
cause men come addicted
to the grind
it takes a special breed
to be a truck drivin' man
a steady hand to pull that
load behind.
MOVIN ON by Merle Haggard
Boston, Massachusetts
On April 15, 16 and 17 the Dylan Haggard
Train rolls into Boston, Massachusetts at the very
unique Orpheum Theater. Peter Wolf
comes to the show and he and Merle spend time
together talking on Merle's bus before
the show...Peter is good friend of Bob Dylan's and
becomes a huge Merle Haggard fan and friend.
Peter
Wolf
Peter Wolf is known for his time
fronting the J. Geils Band, was born in the Bronx. He as performed
as a guest for the Rolling Stone and done duets with Mick Jagger and Aretha
Franklin. Many moons ago, Wolf was in the house band at the
Boston Tea Party where Led Zepplin, Traffic, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, and
other played as guest bands. For a time he spent time with Muddy Waters,
and we might say the same for his time with Faye Dunaway, while
they were married and live the wild side of Rock and Roll and the
Movie Business...and there was the time he was in a band that opened
for the Beatles at Shey stadium.
Peter Wolf and Merle Haggard
enjoy talking on Merle's bus...more from
this night soon...come back ya'll
DYLAN'S BOSTON SET LISTS
1. To Be Alone With You 2. Hazel 3. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) 4. If Dogs Run Free 5. Tough Mama 6. Shelter From The Storm 7. Cold Irons Bound 8. Tomorrow Is A Long Time 9. Highway 61 Revisited 10. Chimes Of Freedom 11. Summer Days 12. Mr. Tambourine Man — 13. Mississippi 14. All Along The Watchtower
1. Maggie's Farm 2. Forever Young 3. Cry A While 4. Bye And Bye 5. Ballad Of Hollis Brown 6. If You See Her, Say Hello 7. Lenny Bruce 8. Honest With Me 9. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll 10. High Water (for Charlie Patton) 11. Every Grain Of Sand 12. Highway 61 Revisited — 13. Blind Willie McTell 14. Like A Rolling Stone
dd
Everyone agrees that the theater in Newark, New Jersey is one of the
most beautiful facilities in the country. Merle
looks up at the tiers and says...You guys know we are a bar band, in
fact we might be the oldest bar band in
existence. We don't have roadies we have nurses. Probably
only tour that has a ambulance following behind our buses.
xx
A GLIMPSE OF DYLAN COUNTRY IN NEW JERSEY NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
If Bob Dylan's New Jersey show Tuesday was any indication, his five-night
run at the Beacon next week will
have a country flavor. But it isn't a "Nashville Skyline" kind of country,
that relaxed back-porch picking to which
Dylan returned for a couple of tracks on 2001's splendid "Love and
Theft" CD. No this is more like country
swing, driving sound that's a close cousin to jazz and runs in a direct
line back to Bob Wills and Western -swing
dance music of the 1930s.
Not by accident, Dylan's version at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center
blended perfectly with the hour-long
Merle Haggard set that preceded him. Haggard's music is drenched
in Bob Wills, and he played a rousing version
of Wills' "Ida Red" as well as several long instrumentals straight
out of a 1938 barn dance...While Haggard and
Dylan never shared the stage, Dylan wove his own infectious swing into
tunes as diverse as "Watching the River
Flow," "Shooting Star," "This Wheel's n Fire," the sweet "Bye and Bye"
and the intense "Absolutely Sweet Marie."
Haggard and the
Strangers
Haggard's bus and his bands bus fill up on the trail...
CHANGING TIMES--Star-Ledger
"A protest song, "John Brown," was one of the evening's highlights.
It was absolutely chilling when Dylan
came to the climactic line of this soldier's tale: "The thing
that scared me most was when my enemy came
close, and I saw he looked just like mine." Dylan never performs
a straightforward greatest hits show,
and changes his set list from show to show, mixing obscurities with
classics. This is one of the reasons
why he still tours so often--the music is always fresh for him.
Haggard was in good form during his own 50-minute set. Backed
by his nine-piece band, the Strangers,
he briskly surveyed his long and distinguished career. Playing
everything from '60s hits "Mama Tried" and
"The Bottle Let Me Down" to Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable" (from Haggard's
2004 standards collection,
also titled "Unforgettable") Haggard crooned most of his songs
warmly, ad the Strangers were extremely
versatile, adding some Dixieland flavor, for instance to ""old Fashioned
Love," and swinging gingerly on
"Unforgettable." Haggard seemed eager to play up their honky-tonk
roots, introducing them as "the only
beer-joint band I know of, still at large."
Verona, New York
The two outlaw troubadours pull into the
gig in Native American land... Seems everybody likes the Casino gig thang, in that you get great rooms in the same
area where the venue is located. Gives the band and crew a place to hang
before and after the crew...
"He played some of his big songs from the 60's and 70's. But he
no longer plays them as folk songs, but rollicking
rock numbers with his tight and
talented band" That kind of sums up the mood of The Turning Stone. Opting to
leave the guitar on the stand and jammin' on the keys once again, Dylan never ceases
to amaze with his versatility and making 40 year old songs fresh and "forever
young" again.
(The Oneida Daily Dispatch)
"When he's rolling, the wisdom escapes like handwritten poetry winding
around the edges of a page. The message is
elusive, darting here and
there, then smacking your brain like a sledgehammer." (M. Bialczak, The Post-Standard)
Speaking of Forever young, Haggard tore up his set getting the audience
riled up with solid crowd favorites like "White
Line Fever" & "Mama Tried".
You can tell when he crooned out "love is the reason for music, and music is
the reason for me" he truly means every word of it. "With a Western dressed country band boasting a fleet-fingered lead
guitar player
and drummer who was so rodeo he actually wore a cowboy kerchief and
leather gloves when he played Haggard blazed
through short, tight arrangements of
his music including classics like "Okie from Muskogee" and "That's the Way Love
Goes."
(The
Day)
"They were so cool, it was hard to tell if it was a big country band
or a country big
band"
(The Post -Standard)
Mashantucket, Connecticut Foxwoods Resort Casino
We pull in the beautiful Fox resort and casino.
The Upstaging crew has the stage ready for the big night...This far into the tour everything is
running like
clock work. A great bond and friendships are being made withall the crew and the Strangers and Dylan's band.
We are all getting
excited at the thoughts of how the closing shows in New York will be...
Haggard and the Strangers rehearse and sound check...the
bands are
scheduled most days to come in around 4 to 5 and do sound
or line checks.
Willie Nelson, who is has been touring with the Dylan show
said one time..."I went home to my
bus..."
Dylan's Swag Wagon...
Atlantic City, New Jersey 24 April New Jersey Borgata Resort
"When '60s hippies approach 60 they turn to 1960s icons
in their 60s to find some shelter from
the storm" Pulling into the huge 24 karate
Borgata you knew it was going to be one of those shows. With all the glitz of the
$2 billion casino, Merle and Bob pulled of one of the most personal performances with a venue that
only held 2,500 die hard fans. Just imagine 2,500 hipsters in all that jazz getting
serenaded to, it wasn't just the Borgata's time to shine.
"To see pencil- mustached, 63-year-old Bob Dylan hunched over his keyboard,
looking like a
cowboy-singer version of Snidely Whiplash, is to stand in awe of his
mighty body of work." "On Sunday, Haggard 68, was fabulous: his band, the Strangers, displayed
a feathery touch on
Dixieland jazz, honkytonks, and Tin Pan Ally tunes, and his soulful
upper register and rugged baritone
were sparkling form." (Dan DeLuca)
That's
The
News Suddenly it's over, the
war is finally done.
Soldiers in the desert sand,
still clingin' to a gun.
No-one is the winner an'
everyone must lose.
Suddenly the war is over:
that's the news.
Suddenly celebrity is somethin'
back in style.
Back to runnin' tabloid
for a while.
Pain's almost everywhere,
the whole world's got the blues.
Suddenly the war is over:
that's the news.
That's the news, that's the
news. That's the ever-lovin',
blessed, headline news. Someone's missin;' in Modesto,
an' it's sad about the clues. Suddenly the war is over:
that's the news.
Suddenly the cost of war
is somethin' out of sight. Lost a lotta heroes in the
fight. Politicians do all the talkin':
soldiers pay the dues. Suddenly the war is over,
that's the news.
That's the news, that's the
news. That's the ever-lovin',
blessed, headline news. Politicians do all the talkin':
soldiers pay the dues. Suddenly the war is over,
that's the news. by MERLE HAGGARD
Merle got a little political
in his wording of "That's the Way Love Goes" saying "don't worry
about what George
Bush says, just keep your mind on Bob Dylan."
He closed the show
with "That's
the News," a new song of his about the Iraq war from his 2003 album
Haggard Like Never Before. Many
of the Dylan fans
came with pre conceived thoughts about who Mr.Haggard was very surprised to see
and hear that he was a rebel of the statute of Dylan himself.
"We've become," Hag
says, "a country that's afraid. And we've got a government
using that fear to make us
give up the freedoms the country was founded on."
"I see a lot more
government now in places that it's never been and doesn't belong.
We're fighting a war to bring freedom
to others when we don't have our own freedoms in a first- class manor anymore."
-Haggard-
"We're afraid to
even have fun, our national question is 'how much Valium do you take?'
How can anyone in their
right mind say we're going in the right direction today?"
Speaking of politics, Haggard
played a new ditty about. "Everything that's bad in the world is
about marijuana!" he jokingly
warned. Two biggest threats
in America are marijuana and Martha Stewart..."
I think in a time like
today...with disease epidemics, war, nuclear threats, terror, increasing
domestic and child abuse,gas prices on the rise, rumors of
more war....Iran, North Korea, China, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, drug wars, full prisons, epidemics of runaways and
adolescent problems in the world, most of the country on some kind of pill be it legal or illegal, medical costs,
feelings that we are on the brink of WWIII...I think that these two men sing
messages to many people down the middle, and on
the right and left...their was a magic in the messages that were passed to these very privileged audiences that caught
a Dylan/Haggard show, and the feeling that we need these troubadours more now than ever...
Buffalo Standley
