Good Times Far From Over for Merle Haggard

Is there another singer on the planet who could breeze into town, as Merle Haggard did Monday night at the Crazy Horse, and musically tip his hat to Elvis, Richard M. Nixon and Orange County’s financial woes--all in the same song?

On the night of Presley’s birthday, and the night before Nixon’s, Hag sang his wistful reflection of a happier time “back before Elvis, before the Vietnam War . . . before Nixon lied to us all on TV.” The song was “Are the Good Times Really Over?,” a title that pretty much sums up the big question in post-bankruptcy O.C.

Considering that the song has long been a staple of his live shows, its timeliness probably was due more to happenstance than design. But the genius of Haggard’s writing is that his insights never go out of date. However long ago they were written and whether they deal with self-centered bureaucrats or self-deluding lovers, his lyrics always sound straight out of the moment.

He keeps them living in the moment with those extraordinary vocals of his, which shift more often than the sands of the Kalahari. The vast majority of today’s country singers may pride themselves on replicating their recordings night after night; Haggard probably couldn’t sing a song exactly the same way twice even at gunpoint.

So even as he delivered “Mama Tried” for the gazillionth time, the regret of a son for the hurt he caused a loving parent was undiminished. In fact, Haggard gave it a relatively low-key reading, letting what was left unsaid speak more powerfully than it might have had he turned the song into the anthem others have attempted to make of it.

The distance between Haggard and virtually the whole field of contemporary country singers was never clearer than when he sang “If I Could Only Fly,” a ballad he recorded as a duet with Willie Nelson in 1987 for their album “Seashores of Old Mexico.”

It’s easy to imagine this song--about a man’s longing to be reunited with his far-away love--being treated as the ultimate expression of romance (if only we could be together, loneliness would be a thing of the past; we’d be eternally happy, etc., etc.).

Haggard took it into another universe entirely--one reserved for those who have come to terms with life’s hard realizations. In this case, the refrain “if only I could fly” became the resigned words of a man who knows too well that his chances of sprouting wings are less than a goat’s chances of becoming the king of England.

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Fiddler Jimmy Belkins brought a velvet-soft tone and the piercing simplicity of an Irish aire to his solo, which exquisitely echoed the ache in Haggard’s voice.

It was one of those musical epiphanies that provided a reminder: Whoever wins the Grammy next month for best male country vocal should turn it over immediately to its rightful owner.

The only disappointment at Monday’s early show (the first of four at the club Monday and Tuesday) was the absence of material from a Haggard album due for release at the end of the month.

Despite that, Haggard’s eight-member band, zestily fronted as it has been in recent years by Cajun-country siblings Joe and Abe Manuel, proved again what a joy a band-as-living-organism can be. No musicians nodding off from playing the same songs the same way a hundred nights straight. Instead, throughout the 80-minute set, the Strangers played with, for and off one another as if they meant it. With Haggard at the helm, that’s no surprise.