"We don't shoot that deadly marijuana, we get drunk like God wants us to do"; Merle and Kris 3/9/11 Concert Review

Two country music legends, one I'd seen before, one I hadn't. I scooped up a pair of tickets when I read that Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson were coming to the Fox Theater in St. Louis, a couple months ago. I saw Kris last Winter, but the chance to see the two of them together on the same stage at the same time I probably wouldn't have too many more chances to do so...
Me and my mom braved the crappy rainy weather to get there. The house lights dimmed on cue at 8 o'clock, country artists don't fuck around. Kris came out by himself with guitar and harmonica and sang Shipwrecked in the Eighties, before introducing Merle and the Strangers, who tore into Silver Wings, then a couple of more numbers.
The two did shows similar last year and the set lists and reviews I read, said they alternated songs, Merle would do one then Kris would. But either Kris was ceded the stage to Merle or Kris was again suffering from a bad cold. He shouldn't do many winter shows or he's spent too many years in Hawaii... But the pattern of the night would be Kris would do one, then Merle would do two or three. Which actually worked fine for me, as I'd already seen Kris do most of his hits, and the more Merle the better.
Highlights for me were Are The Good Times Really Over For Good?, where Merle did his ad libs. He changed "When a man could still work and steal wood" instead of 'still would" and "When a girl could still cook and chop wood." He also stopped and changed, "where a joint was a bad place to be", to "where a joint was a nice place to be."
Merle's guitar solo on Kris' Loving Her Was Easier, added to one of my favorite songs as well. And Kris added "It's feels like I'm dying," after the lyric "...as I lay dying," in reference to his cold.
And the sheer fact he played Okie from Muskogee with very liberal Kristofferson standing two feet from him was a sight to see. Merle gave an introduction about how things have changed and how his life was a licensed medical marijuana grower(He neglected to mention the fact he started smoking after facing lung cancer a while back). And he stopped the song, because the audience didn't give enough reaction to the opening line. Then the line "We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy..." was a hoot, with Merle's fiddle player pointing towards Kris, and Merle pointing toward his longtime steel guitar player and bald headed Norman Hamlett. And the real treat was Kris sang a verse, of his version which you can hear on his live cd Live at the Philharmonic. "...We don't shoot that deadly marijuana, we get drunk like God wants us to do."
It was interesting watching Kris on stage was Merle was playing, he would sing some harmony and play harmonica and guitar. But even when he wasn't, you could see him singing along, I think that says a lot about his respect for Merle.
The only real bad part was it was too brief at 90 minutes. Sure, they did play 23 songs, but for two performers, a few more songs would have been nice to lengthen it out a little more. It was also interesting they didn't do an encore, after Merle announced the "last song of the evening," which it turned out to be. The only song I was really disappointed not to get to hear was Ramblin' Fever and maybe Rainbow Stew a little bit. The legendary Norman Hamlett didn't seem to do much, Merle mentioned once that they'd had trouble with his amp for his Dobro and they could never get the sound going right.
Overall it was a solid show. Merle was in good spirits joking with the audience a lot. "It's nice to see people my age coming out...Everyone else so why not us." And he also joked that " It's hard to write these songs, I wrote at it sea level in my Twenties, here in winter and in my Forties!" And during the band introductions, he had the band shake hands and "introduce" themselves to one another, before the band intro proper.
This was one of the better show's I've attended. I got most of my favorites and never knew for sure what was coming next from two living legends. A couple of more songs might have made this one of the very best shows I've seen, but still a very good and enjoyable night. Here's the Post Dispatch's review and the Riverfront Time's review.

Set List

1. Shipwrecked in the Eighties

2. Silver Wings

3. Going Where The Lonely Go

4. The Bottle Let Me Down

5. Me and Bobby McGee

6. The Other Side of Nowhere

7. Mama Tried

8. Back to Earth

9. Are the Good Times Really Over? (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)

10. The Pilgrim: Chapter 33

11. It's Been a Great Afternoon

12. Big City

13. Help Me Make it Through The Night

14. Workingman Blues

15. They're Tearing the Labor Camps Down

16. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)

17. I'll Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink

18. Mama's Prayer

19. Okie from Muskogee

20. Sunday Morning Coming Down

21. I Am What I Am

22. Why Me Lord?

23. Pancho and Lefty