Singin' Those Sad Songs; Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell 3/17 Concert Review

I can check two more classic country artists off my list of ones I need to still see live. Old friends, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell hit the road in support of their Old Yellow Moon album and The Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, got the second official stop on the tour. I had waffled on getting tickets earlier in the month, when there wasn't many good open seats. For the hell of it I checked on Thursday and they had released good seats up front.
Now, Harris is one of my old man's favorites and I've wanted too see Crowell too. But alas my dad wasn't sure if he had music practice for a Easter Pageant he's in, but I decided to get tickets anyway, as it was easy to get off work on a Sunday night and my mom would go(which she did) if he couldn't go.
For being St Patrick's day it was a nasty,  rainy, snowing and sleeting day out. Though thankfully it was still warm enough for nothing to stick. But we ended getting there a little bit after six, for the 7 P.M. start time.
The Peabody Opera House is pretty spacious ceiling and stage wise, but don't think seat wise is bigger than the Fox Theatre. Both are nice. The seats I ended up getting were three rows back(six counting the orchestra pit) in the right middle section, which provided one of the best seating views I've had at a concert, at least in the theater setting.
Opening act Richard Thompson hit  the stage a hair after seven, preforming a 10 song set at a little under an hour in his "Electric Trio."  Honestly, other than knowing he is regarded as one of the great guitar players and he was in Fairpoint Convention, I'm not familiar with his much. I did recognize the last song, Tear Stained Letter and I might have heard Keep Your Distance before as well. And his guitar playing was good on his electric and acoustic. The sound and tone of his songs I really enjoyed too, not being familiar with, which means I'll have to check him out a little further.
His English manners and humor were on display as well. Dealing with hecklers, both positive and negative, he came back with several witty replies. After an obnoxious request, he replied, "No, we're going to do the next one."  Early when he was trying to tell the sound people, that he needed to go down, multiple times, he kept motioning down, then telling us, "That's our secret signal system here, to go down."  The funny thing in most circles or places, he's probably more famous than either Crowell or Harris, but is the opening act here, which Thompson said, "..This is a wonderful bill, except for our part here."
After a half hour set change Harris and Crowell came out with their five piece backing band and opened with Gram Parsons' Return of the Grievous Angel, which was almost worth the ticket by itself. They followed with another Parsons tune, Wheels.
Their band kept a good country sound and backing throughout the night. And Harris kept up a banter with the audience throughout the night and Crowell occasionally injecting some of his dry wit. Harris at one point, "I was lucky to have him all to myself in my band and as a songwriter. I heard all of these songs and before other people knew who was (He replied, "They still don't know me.")."
Overall they played 23 songs total at slightly under two hours, hitting quite a few from their new album. Their cover of Kris Kristofferson's Chase The Feeling was a pretty good version and one of the nights highlights. Though Harris at one point remarked how most of the songs they played were sad ones, even with the ones with a nice cheerful beat.
Pancho and Lefty was another highlight, which Harris remarked they loved this Townes Van Zandt song but only knew the words to the chorus and on the bus they had to rewind the cassette of it("With a number two pencil," Crowell added.)  which they kept playing.

And the three pack of songs written by Crowell that Harris recorded in the 70s, of Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight, Till I Gain Control Again and I Ain't Livin' Long Like This, which Thompson came back to add guitar muscle one, was another strong point for me. Leavin Louisiana was the song I was most looking forward to hearing, as I'd been playing Harris' version nonstop the day or two before.
The most surprising omission was Harris' most known song Two More Bottles of Wine, but honestly the beauty of their singing together and other surprise songs, was enough to make up for it.
After leaving the stage shortly, the pair came back for two more songs, If I Could Only Win Your Love and Love Hurts, another song Harris recorded with Parsons as well as another highlight of the night. At the end Harris brought her dogs on stage, and gave a message about taking them in and trying to keep others out of the kennels.
Another one of the better concerts I've been too. And this being the first concert of my smart phone age, I have decent pictures(Though I still need to learn to use it. Should have gotten little better due to my nearness.).  The next day, I told the old man he should have skipped practice and went. Two great icons of true country and Americana music. It's a shame that Tim McGraw and Faith Hill pass the muster for most folks as "Country Music." People have sad tastes.

Set List  (The order isn't 100 percent good and question marks are songs I think they played based on other set lists.)

1. Return of the Grievous Angel
2. Wheels
3.Tragedy ?
4. Tulsa Queen
5. Luxury Liner?
6. Spanish Dream?
7. Pancho and Lefty
8. Earthbound
9. Back When We Were Beautiful
10. Dreaming My Dreams 
11. Bluebird Wine
12. I'll Be Your San Antonio Rose
13. Old Yellow Moon?
14. Chase That Feeling
15. Black Caffeine
16. Invitation to the Blues
17. Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight
18. Till I Gain Control Again
19. I Aint' Living Long Like This
20. Hanging Up My Heart?
21. Still Learning How to Fly  
--------
22. If I Could Only Win Your Love
23. Love Hurts


KDHX's review

The Return of Astro City!

After almost three years, the greatest comic book returns June 5th!



When we last got to visit the great city, we were getting the final chapter of the Silver Agent's story, after wrapping up the massive Dark Age storyline. We were promised the monthly series after that, but creator Kurt Busiek's health took a bad turn for a while, in addition to the Wildstorm imprint being dismantled. But the wait will be worth it.
This comic is so much more than the fights of the tights. It's about the human aspect of what's it like living in a world of heroes, whether it be from a super powered perspective or of an ordinary guy who just moved to the city. They have the same thoughts, emotions and problems as we do, albeit with super villains running rampant. It's a deeper world of heroes and villains than the comic books of old.
Naturally my interest has waned in these in-between years, more so than similar hiatus for Kurt's health issues from 2000 to early 2003 (Or course my total comic interest these days is nowhere close to my teen years).
And Herocopia went down to spammers, plus we lost all the entries we put in and it reverted back to the original, which sucked considering we had entries for every character, neighborhood, thing and reference. If you wanted to know every issue Jack-in-The-Box was in, or who the Grandenetti Cathedral was named for, it was a quick reference for casual and hard core fan.
But I'm sure I won't have a problem getting back into the book  Even issues in a multi-part story do their best to be self contained and I'm sure Kurt will make the first issue very reader friendly, similar to the way he made volume 2 #1 of the main series and the first issue of the Local Heroes mini-series great jumping on points. There will be something for everyone.
In the MTV interview, he hints at a new intriguing character, The Broken Man, similar to the way the Silver Agent was to readers in the early issues. He's hinted that we've seen him before. My very early speculation guess would be he's the Bouncing Beatnik/Halcyon Hippie...
I'm eager to see the N-Forcer expose story that Kurt mentioned before the hiatus. It's a character who's been active in the Astro-Verse since at least 1959. Plus the fact that we'll see more of the present day characters after spending so much of the characters specials and the whole part of The Dark Age in the past. The Honor Guard is another of my favorite intrigues as I'm a sucker for super teams. They seemingly held the same roster from at least 1991 until 2008, the last time we saw the modern team. I'm just curious to some of the changes and inner workings.
But the older characters are very intriguing too. I'm still curious as to how the Silver Agent wouldn't have known Mirage, considering they were teammates on Honor Guard in the 1960s from the Dark Age Book Four #2. I want to see what the Astro-Naut looks like. Or how there were two different accounts of what happened to the All-American (I think I have another blog post formulating around now)...
Kurts always been masterful of  weaving from the past to present, in self contained, two-parters and multi parters. Heck the whole crew of Artist/Character Designer Brent Anderson, Colorist Alex Sinclair, Letterer and Designer JG Roshell and superstar Cover Artist/Character Designer Alex Ross are stellar.
June 5th can't get here soon enough. I guess I'll just have to break out some issues and get reacquainted with the great stories I already have.

A 1992 Collegiate Men's Olympic Basketball Team

I made a roster earlier this year of who I thought would be an Olympic basketball team if it were still made up of college players. And I talked about making retro teams as well, and well' here I am eight months later, finally getting down to it.
Coach K would have been the coach, based on his strong run of being the dominant and consistent program in college basketball in the late 80s and early 90s.

Starters

• C Shaquille O'Neal (Louisiana State)
• PF Christian Laettner (Duke)
• SF/SG Calbert Cheaney (Indiana)
• SG Jim Jackson (Ohio State)
• PG Bobby Hurley (Duke)

Bench

• C Alonzo Mourning (Georgetown)
• PF Chris Webber (Michigan)
• F Jamal Mashburn (Kentucky)
• SF/G Grant Hill (Duke)
• G/SF Anfernee Hardaway (Memphis) 
• SG Allan Houston (Tennessee) 
• G Anthony Peeler (Missouri)

 This was pretty hard and straight forward at the same time. There was a lot of talent, but likely not all of these stars would have wanted to play for Team USA, to pick from, but pretty easy to figure out the best of the best, plus a few to fill in roles.
Laettner was the easiest choice(he was already on the Dream Team. Hahaha!). There's a good balance of guards, forwards and centers and a lot of overall mid height athletic guys. Though, like the roster I made for a 2012 team, not a lot whole lot of true point guards, but quite a few capable of running the point. But the Dream Team itself only had one true point guard.
I think if Collegians would have still been playing in 1992 they would have had one of the stronger teams in USA history. With the athletes and talent pool, whoever they had, they would have been right there with the 1960 and 1984 teams.

The Only Boss I Listen To; 11/17 Bruce Springsteen Concert Review

      A Bruce Springsteen concert is an experience, with no show being exactly the same and each show having it's own personality. He changes the set lists up nightly, has numerous false endings on songs, plays sign requests and calls audibles to the set list on the fly. Let's see any other stadium and arena acts, do this with their same "show" every city, with pre-programmed lights, choreography, etc., do something unplanned or unrehearsed. 
    Yes, there are parts and set pieces that fall into the same pattern. And yes, he has routines and schticks he uses. But they can and do go off-key, which is usually just laughed off and makes the concert experience better. Bruce is still a musician in addition to being a showman.
     I saw Mr. Springsteen for third time, this time in Kansas City at the Sprint Center, Saturday night. I was hoping for a St. Louis date, but one never materialized (at least this year) on his Wrecking Ball Tour. Well, with the vacation days I had and not doing much else, I would have probably double dipped anyway. 
     Me and my dad got there about 6:30, just at they were opening the doors for the 7:30 show, which we knew wouldn't start until about 8:20. Once we got to our seats and having just seen McCartney at Scottrade a week ago, we noticed, even though having been there before, that the Sprint Center was smaller seating wise. And the fact the opposite side of the arena wasn't as far away as the Scottrade Center.
     I got decent seats this time, 19 rows back  in the second section over stage right and still a nice view of the video screen. There was an older guy, with a green shirt, who was totally psyched once it started getting close to start time. He was jumping around in his seat, clapping and chanting, "Bruuuuuuuce." And once the concert started he was jumping around playing air drums.
    The lights went out and Big Boss Man started playing, it was time to rock. And he opened up with a song that me and my dad talked about him likely playing and Bruce said, "We can't resist playing this one whenever we come to Kansas City, so we're going to start off with it," and the E Street Band launched into Kansas City.  With the horns(including Curt Ramm a native Kansas Cityian and who's played on a lot of Springsteen records tours)  and back up singers he's now carrying it was cooking jazz version with a little Hey Hey Hey Hey thrown in like the Beatles did. It also set the mood for the show, in that it was going to be a festive affair. Then it was right into the Roy Bittan's piano introduction of one of my favorites, Prove It All Night. I knew it was going to be a good show.
   After his march to the middle platform during the singalong that was Hungry Heart, he asked, "Is there any strong men in Kansas City?" before doing his crowd surfing back to the front. Apparently not, as he almost got dropped.
   The new songs off of Wrecking Ball, held up pretty good. Though the title track wasn't "new." He opened with it when I saw him in the 2009 in St. Louis and Land of Hope and Dreams dates back to the reunion tour. Death to My Hometown with his Irish brogue singing sounded better live than on record.
   Before My City of Ruins, he asked, "....Kansas City, Missouri right? The Show-me State?....We've traveled all this way, we're gonna fucking show you something tonight!" He also saw a jawbreaker on stage, "We don't have Twinkies, but we still have Jawbreakers. I had to turn my three-year-old upside down once to stop him from choking on one of these." Then someone threw up a large blue bra with a song request on it, which he replied, "Now, that's a jawbreaker and a surefire way to get your request played. We'll get to it later." I could make out the word "me" and got a chuckle when I figured it out.
   A few songs later the sign gathering started, and after going through some, Bruce said, "Little Steven pointed this one out," which on a bright orange sign was Fire, which pleased the crowd. The next request played was Incident on 57th Street, which seemed to go against the mood and flow of the show.  Before it started,  Bruce hollered at Nils, "Are you ready Nils?" before telling us, "Last time we played it Nils fucked it up badly." It was a good performance, but just seemed sort of out of place being one of his more epic story songs. But that lead into another of my and a crowd whipping frenzy of Because the Night.
   Then the bright blue bra made its return which read, Cover Me. Heh-heh. That lead straight into two more Born in the USA songs, Downbound Train and I'm On Fire. Bruce had to cancel KC in 2009 after his cousin and crew member was found dead in the hotel, but he was originally planning to play the entire album of Born in the USA that night.
   Waitin' on a Sunny Day in concert features Bruce pulling out a young kid form the audience to sing along with the chorus. This night he pulled a young girl probably around four or five, and her parents said she could pull it off. But once up on the walk with Bruce, she froze up, just mustering a few whispers, even with encouragement from the audience. Bruce laughed it off, "She'll be scarred for life." Like I said, not everything in concerts is planned or panned out right.
    During Raise Your Hand he made his way back to the middle platform and picked up Santa Clause hat on his way back, foreshadowing a song later on. Then it was on to the rock and roll fire of favorites The Rising and Badlands to start closing down the main set, with Land of Hope and Dreams and Light of Day.
    The encore started off with a shout out of to the local charity helping out homeless for the KC area and am mention of the canceling the last time and a dedication to his cousin, with My Beautiful Reward. A slower song that didn't seem as out of place in this spot. Then it was house lights on with classics the rest of the night Born to Run and Dancing in the Dark. During the "dancing" part, signs requested to dance with Jake Clemons and Nils Lofgren were granted. And Bruce got one for a mother and daughter to dance with, which lead to a comical struggle to get the mother pulled up with help from Steven. As well as the Bruce and Steven having to herd the women off stage.
    Speaking of Jake, having big shoes to fill in for his uncle, the Big Man, he did a marvelous job on playing.  He might not be a stage presence like him, but playing wise gets the job done.  And speaking of excellent playing, Max is still a firebrand of a drummer. Anything the video screen was on him, you could just see the focus on Bruce and where the song was going. And as my dad said, he has to be on it, when Bruce calls to start a new song with no break in between. And he was pounding away as Mad Max every time I  looked at him on stage.
   After that the Santa Hat returned, which led into Santa Claus is Coming to Town, which fit the mood of the show and was another treat. Then it was my personal favorite Springsteen song, as well as my dads and the finale of Tenth Avenue Freeze Out. Before the song Bruce, yanked his shirt off, down to his undershirt. It was a struggle for the roadie to get his shirt off (even though I knew he was going to be wearing a tie, there's just something un-rock and roll about it. Even though it was common pre1970's rock. That and I don't trust people in or who wear ties.), with Bruce almost falling down. He started the song atop the piano and made his way to the middle platform again, and after the important part of, "...when the change was made uptown the Big Man joined the band," the band stopped and the video screens showed pictures of Clarance, which led to applause and cheers for a couple of minutes, before the band picked it back up, then Bruce brought it home.
   Another awesome show, at a hair over three hours. I don't know if it's the best one I've seen out of the three, but as I've become a bigger fan, I probably enjoyed it a lot more. Even if he is a Obama supporting liberal, you'd still have fun at his show. Probably helps more if you are though, but thankfully he saved any liberal clap trap talk from us.
   Now I'm just ready for a St. Louis date in the Spring... 





 Backstreets review and KC Star Review   

  Set List 

Kansas City
Prove It All Night
Candy's Room
She's the One (with Not Fade Away intro)
Hungry Heart
We Take Care of Our Own
Wrecking Ball
Death to My Hometown
My City of Ruins
The E Street Shuffle
Fire
Incident on 57th Street
Because the Night
Cover Me
Downbound Train
I'm on Fire
Shackled and Drawn
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Raise Your Hand
The Rising
Badlands
Land of Hope and Dreams
Light of Day
----------------
My Beautiful Reward
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out

I Saw A Beatle; Paul McCartney 11/11 Concert Review

     There are very few people from the early Rock and Roll era that still have the stature and drawing capability of Paul McCartney. Heck, few contemporaries have his stature. And at 70 years old, he still has a lot of the charm and attitude that he had 50 years ago. "
     These days he mostly plays small runs of five to seven dates and mostly baseball stadiums in America. But along with Minute Maid Park in Houston and a few dates in Canada, he placed St. Louis at Scottrade Center on his "On the Run" tour, with it being the first date and first in St. Louis since 2002. And his drawing power was strong, "selling out" within minutes. Though I went a week later on Ticketmaster and got seats. Expensive, but worth it to see Macca. 
    And naturally it was raining steadily Sunday night. Paul must bring something when he comes to St. Louis as when the Beatles played the original Busch Stadium in 1966,  it was a down pour that helped spur the Beatles away from live gigs on the road. And to make matters even better, I-64 was out and traffic on Market street was backed up horrendously. I eventually got out of the car, so I wouldn't miss anything.
    I marched through the rain, made it in, got a piss in a still had ten minutes to spare til 8 PM. I knew I was going to be "behind" the stage, but thought more parallel. Oh, well, still fairly close and a video screen right up top for us. And my dad was able to verve off and find a parking spot and made it in, before McCartney hit the stage, a little before 8:30 and the place looked very much sold out, even in the upper levels all around.
    He came out, energetically and opened with Magical Mystery Tour, a pretty good choice for an opening song for him and his four piece band. Macca  spent most of the night playing his Hofner bass, but also played electric guitar, acoustic, piano for several numbers throughout the night switching back and forth and he played the ukulele on Something, which I was expecting in his tribute to George Harrison.
     And he still had the humor from his Beatle days to match his energy. In greeting the audience, he was saying St. Louie instead of St. Louis, till he asked the proper way to say it. The crowed roared, "Yes," when he said, "St. Louis." To which he replied, "Okay, now I know." Which I told my dad later, he probably got, from listening to Chuck Berry. Listen to Sweet Little Sixteen and Back in the USA...
     And my favorite moment was during a guitar switch, he took a good natured swipe at the practice of constantly switching guitars out. "...It's just to show off. We have them...And this guitar was used on the recordings..um for this next song, before kicking into Paperback Writer..."
      He took his jacket off after about six songs, saying, " This is the only wardrobe change of the evening." And later when his drummer was dancing, he said, "The only choreography of the evening," and later added, "Wardrobe changes and choreography what more do you need?
      A real shock was the only pyrotechnics, which blasted away during Live and Let Die, which really made sure everyone was paying attention. Afterwards, running down the stairs, he tripped to the ground.
      One other cool feature was during Band on the Run, they set the lights up to make it look like a bunch of bars around the stage. Then, during the tempo change after, "...If we ever get out of here," they busted down.
    Set List 

Magical Mystery Tour
Junior's Farm
All My Loving
Jet
Drive My Car
Sing The Changes
The Night Before
Let Me Roll It> Foxy Lady(instrumental)
Paperback Writer
The Long & Winding Road 
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen A Face
And I Love Her
My Valentine
Blackbird
Here Today
Dance Tonight
Mrs. Vandebilt
Eleanor Rigby
Something
Band on the Run 
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Back in the USSR
I've Got A Feeling
A Day In The Life>Give Peace a Chance
Let It Be
Live & Let Die
Hey Jude
- - - - - - - - - - -
Lady Madonna
Birthday
Day Tripper
Get Back
- - - - - - - - - -
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End

      The biggest highlights for me, was that he played one of my very favorite Beatles songs, I've Got A Feeling, and my favorite solo song of his, Jet and the biggest surprise song, was Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, which I wasn't expecting. And he still kept the lyric flub as in the original recording, "...And Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face..."
      Naturally after we were on our way home, Dad did his usual figuring out which songs, McCartney didn't play. With "his" Beatles songs, Wings and solo songs, there was going to be no way he hit all of them. Even at nearly three hours and 37 songs. The only real surprising omission was he didn't play I Saw Her Standing There. 
     He played the majors, Yesterday and Hey Jude, which everybody was rightfully singing along to. There would be something seriously wrong with you if you weren't. And he left on the very appropriate Abbey Road medley of Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight and The End, another highlight for me. "There's a point which the show has to end." To which some crowd members were shouting, "No," to which Paul cheerfully replied, "Yes," several times.
     It was a good time, even with shoddy weather and not super great seats. Again, I don't know what sane person, could hate these songs. And in the end, I've seen a Beatle.

Post Dispatch review and Riverfront Times review.

I Despise the Saying, "It Is What It Is."

I despise the saying, "It is what it is." Bad. I don't know why, but when people use it, it drives me up a wall.
Maybe I just disagree with the philosophy or the logic behind it. It's makes it seem like someone or something is resigned to fate. I'll stand by, "It's never what it is." And if something isn't how you like it, you go out and fix it.
So, if you're around me, please don't use it. It might make me want to strangle you.

The Workingman's Poet; Merle Haggard and Marty Stuart 6/24 Concert Review

   Even though I just saw Mr. Haggard, a year and a half ago, it was well worth it to go see the legend again, with a fairly big name opener in Marty Stuart. Plus he didn't play my favorite song last time....
   I'd never been to the Family Arena in St. Charles, so this was a first. It's sort of off by itself in a forested area near the Missouri River I believe. And it's basically just a small arena.
    I forked over the few extra dollars for the good seats.  The old man came along this time, probably more than seeing Haggard again(he saw him in the early 70s at Kiel Auditorium with Loretta Lynn) he wanted to see Marty Stuart. And we were in the fifth row, dead center from the stage. And being a country concert, it stared close enough to being on time at 7:30.
   Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives came out firing with Stop the World (And Let Me Off). His claim to recent fame, is his own show on the RFD Network in the vein of the Porter Wagoner Show and Wilburn  Brothers shows of old, which he mentioned, "is the only place you can see them, and buy a cow and a tractor in the same place."
   Stuart and company made it a hard act for Haggard to follow. 'Cousin' Kenny Vaughan on guitar(who looks even weirder in person) was hot on guitar, 'Apostle Paul' on bass and 'Handsome' Harry Stinson on drums are the Fabulous Superlatives and they can cook, with different styles of country. Stuart let each of them have one song to sing, giving them a part of the spotlight.
  They played 15 songs over an hour, hitting his most well known hits, The Whiskey Ain't Working, This One's Gonna Hurt You (For a Long Long Time), Tempted(Which I've always thought sounds like a Springsteen song) and the set closer Hillbilly Rock(which he ad libbed in St. Charles during a verse). And he gave several stories about Johnny Cash and what the man meant to him, before preforming Dark Bird.
  Other songs they played included Hummingbyrd, Farmer's Blues, a mandolin solo by Marty, Country Music Got A Hold On Me(Kenny Vaughan singing), Heaven.
  Stuart kept the crowd entertained, with quips like, "People ask what's it like to be married to a big time country star. I tell them 'I think Connie's getting used to it'."  And early in the show, "I hope you like our show. If you don't...too bad, we've already got your money!"  And after the final number Stuart left to the band playing the outro to his television show.

  After a thirty minute set changeover, the lights dimmed and the Strangers played Merle on, who opened with the same song as last time I saw him, Silver Wings, along with Marty Stuart coming out introducing the Hag.
   After the first two songs, I was worried about Merle's voice as it sounded shaky and light and both songs were over quickly. But I guess the got the sound and volume up and with the third song, it got the place really pumping. And it was also my favorite song of his, Ramblin' Fever, which is the one I wanted to hear him do most, especially since he didn't play it last year at the Fox. He also played my second choice of songs, he didn't play then, Today I Started Loving You Again, as well as That's The Way Love Goes. I think out of the 20 songs he played, 11 were different ones than he played at the Fox. I've read he before he usually doesn't plan out too much of a set list and it varies to good degrees each night, which it looked like at times, he was telling the band which song to go to next.

Set List

Silver Wings
Mama Tried
Ramblin' Fever
Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down
Kern River
T.B. Blues
Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star
I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink
Big City
Workin' Man Blues
If I Could Only Fly
That's the Way Love Goes
Motorcycle Cowboy
Today I Started Loving You Again
Folsom Prison Blues
Working in Tennessee
Take Me Back to Tulsa
Thirty Again
Momma's Prayers
Okie From Muskogee

   Merle didn't talk as much this time with the audience, his first words were, "Here's a song for the drunks," before Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down. And he recited the same joke from last year about, 'writing all these songs at sea level in my 20s and here I am in my 40s'. And he gave intros to a few of the other songs, including showing his own reverence for Johnny Cash, breaking out Folsom Prison Blues. He also did the same joke with 'introducing the Strangers' by having them all shake hands like they're introducing themselves to each other for the first time.
   He brought out his fiddle, for Working in Tennessee and Take Me Back to Tulsa.  And Thirty Again was a fun song, that I don't think I'd ever heard before. And like last time he did no encore, leaving after Okie From Muskogee. He used my favorite line from Kris Kristofferson's version of the song, "We don't smoke that deadly marijuana, we get drunk like God wants us to do." Love it. 
   He only played for 70 minutes, but he got 20 songs in there, which is pretty stout for a 75 year old performer. The heat might have had some influence for that maybe. I know the seats were bunched together and I had little room to maneuver around.
    I know the old man had a good time as well, even if he didn't get the certain song he was looking for. He was hooping and hollering throughout, cheering and signing along. Merle and the Strangers and Marty and the Superlatives gave us some good old fashioned country and some real music.