MUSIC : COUNTRY MUSIC : VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : Haggard Not Ready to Sit on Hall of Fame Pedestal : Singer-songwriter has been enshrined as one of the greats of country music, but he sees his many laurels as a challenge to keep creating.
“What do you get when you play a country song backward?” goes the joke. You get your house, your girlfriend, your dog, your job and your truck back.
If you follow the logic in that joke, chances are legendary country singer-songwriter-musician Merle Haggard would regain all of the above, along with a squandered youth, several ex-wives and song rights sold to pay the IRS for back taxes. All that with one press of the rewind button.
But the process would also erase a lot of life experiences--of working-class struggles, failed relationships, profligacy, patriotism and prison--that have imbued the country icon’s songs with the emotional immediacy that has sustained his legacy for three decades.
Although Haggard has remained the voice of conservative country and the “Silent Majority,” his blue-collar West Coast sound is probably the influence most often cited by two generations of country artists. Just ask current Nashville titans Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart and Brooks & Dunn.
Yet, after more than 65 albums and hundreds of songs, including “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down,” “Mama Tried,” “Silver Wings,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “Workin’ Man Blues” and “Today I Started Loving You Again”--a ballad that has been covered by over 400 artists to date--Haggard has avoided becoming a caricature of his own myth. And last year brought him two tribute albums and membership in Nashville’s Country Music Assn. Hall of Fame, alongside his own musical heroes, Jimmie Rodgers, Lefty Frizzell, Bob Wills and Hank Williams Sr.
Tonight at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks Haggard and his band, the Strangers, will perform his classics and unveil material from a tribute album, “Tulare Dust,” to be released in January on the Curb label. The album features guests Iris DeMent, Dwight Yoakam, John Anderson and Dawn Sears.
Here’s some of what Haggard had to say about the state of country music, the tribute albums and songwriting when we spoke last week. He called from the 150-acre Mt. Shasta spread he shares with his wife Theresa, their two young children and several dogs that during our conversation kept “chowin’ down on the house plants.”
Dave Alvin, the co-producer on the “Tulare Dust” album, told me recently that he and Tom Russell pushed for an acoustic album because they “wanted to strip away the legend and present a guy who for 30 years has been writing great songs.” In contrast, the Arista “Mama’s Hungry Eyes” project featured mega-name Nashville country stars and studio musicians. Fess up, which CD and which approach did you like better?
I watched the production of the one from Nashville all come about. But this little thing from the West Coast was a total surprise. When I got the tape, of course I listened to it. . . . They didn’t tune ‘em on no goddamn tuner. But somehow or other I like that tribute better because they did it their way. I think they made a mistake in the production of that big thing in Nashville. If John Anderson or if Marty Stuart had done it his way instead of tryin’ to do it my way, I think they’d have paid a more solid tribute to the music.
Any favorites on “Tulare Dust?”
I was really fond of the Iris DeMent cut, “Big City.” Yeah, Iris knocked me out so I tried to help her. She’s quite talented.
You also mentioned the Rosie Flores version of “My Own Kind of Hat,” which is a verbal jewel. “There’s two kind of lovers, two kind of brothers, two kind of babies to hold. / Two kind of cherries, two kind of fairies, and two kind of mothers I’m told.” I think you had too much fun writing that one.
(Chuckles) Sounds like the truth. I guess I’m an observer. And I listen.
Do you even listen to what they call the “new country music?”
I sure don’t. I did for a while. And I turn it on occasionally to see that I’m still doin’ the right thing. But I don’t really think it has a lot to do with what we’ve known as country music.
It seems like there’s an intentional development on the part of the studios around the country to be in tune, clever, fill your jeans well and you can’t be over 30. I disagree with trying to groom country singers. They’re trying to learn to grow an Elvis Presley. I like to think that people like Elvis Presley are rare as the planets.
I think the music lacks some punch. And I don’t understand why they want to play the same song for that line dance. The public seems to be buyin’ it, though, because it’s not as “hicky” as it was before. It becomes very boring to me because it’s all the same tempo and no message. It just sounds awful “white.” It doesn’t seem to have enough blues for me in it. And they’re too goddamn close in tune. There’s a trend not to develop your ear so you can tune your guitar your own self--just look at the meter and let the dials tell you. So everybody’ll be perfectly in tune and have no songs to sing.
So how do you approach songwriting?
I look at a song and see if it’s actually gonna make a person wanna sing it. It’s not just the message. Why has “Happy Birthday” stayed around? Well, because we need “Happy Birthday.” And we needed an “Okie From Muskogee.” I look for that void.
Did you have the George Jones standard, “He Stopped Loving Her Today?” in mind when you wrote your ballad “Today I Started Loving You Again.”
No. It’s reality. There’s got to be a real incident that inspired those two songs. It’s got to be obvious that you’re not coming from an empty part of the room. But you’re workin’ with a full picture here. You got a story, somebody involved, you got a couple of hearts--an example that’s worth puttin’ into a framework.
Among the Hall of Fame award, two tribute albums and your own CD “Merle Haggard, 1994” 1994 was a watershed year for you. Does all of that, and being spoken of as a legend, put pressure on you to keep creating?
Well, it sort of terminates things, really, you know. It’s life after Hall of Fame. You can decide that that’s it or try to pull it off and keep going. I ain’t done yet.
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DETAILS
* WHAT: Country Music Assn. Hall of Fame legend Merle Haggard performs songs from a 30-year career that made him an icon for later generations of country artists.
* WHERE: Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.
* WHEN: 7:30 p.m. tonight.
* HOW MUCH: $47, $37, $27.
* FYI: Tickets are available through Ticketmaster outlets or by calling the Civic Arts box office.
* CALL: (805) 449-2787.