Merle Haggard Takes it Easy at the Ryman

Many artists, even some legends, step onto the Ryman Auditorium stage and try to give something extra, perhaps out of respect for the legendary venue’s importance to creating their craft, appreciation for some of the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable audiences in country music, or even a nagging feeling of inadequacy at walking the same planks as Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. This tendency clearly benefits Ryman concert-goers, who pay not only to see legendary performers but also anticipate shows that seem just a little more special than they are anywhere else.

Nonetheless, Merle Haggard’s well-established road show is so finely honed that expecting his Wednesday night Ryman Auditorium show to be extraordinary is simply insulting to other venues and even the artist himself. Set aside the luminaries who were literally overflowing the Ryman’s wings (Martina McBride seemed to be having more fun than anyone) and you’re left simply with an artist who remains in fine and consistent form decades after his national debut. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Haggard’s act is road-worn in a way that doesn’t bastardize his hits: there’s no talk-singing through classics, few key changes and The Strangers are one of the tightest bands around, producing recognizable record-quality sound rather than succumbing to Willie Nelson-style uncoordinated jam fests.

Despite the fidelity of Haggard’s instrumentation and vocal performances, there’s a veteran ease and somewhat liberated security in his song selection. Haggard left the stage without performing signature song “Okie from Muskogee,” creating one of those uncomfortable standing ovations when the audience is expecting the encore that’s never going to come, and several other classics, including “Pancho and Lefty,” also went unsung. The show began unremarkably with two deep catalog songs before Haggard elicited the first cheer of recognition with “That’s the Way Love Goes” and Merle devoted considerable time to new songs, including the cannabis tribute “Half of My Garden is for Willie” and the wry “Love is Always Pretty When it’s New.”

Of the Haggard classics, “Silver Wings,” “The Way I Am” and crowd-favorite “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” were performed with confident ease while “Kern River” was sung with inspired tenderness and “Back to Earth,” from 2007’s Last of the Breed, contained more than a trace of Willie’s nasally twang.

Fifty years after his incarceration at San Quentin, Haggard still seems to identify strongly with prison life. He stopped himself in the middle of “Are the Good Times Really Over?” to reconsider a time when “coke was still cola and the joint was a good place to be,” surprisingly growled his way through “Sing Me Back Home” and gave his most inspired vocal performance of the night on “Mama Tried.”

Still, even on these and other hell-raisers like “The Bottle Let Me Down,” Haggard gives the appearance of a time-worn outlaw, a wise man appreciative of but not nostalgic for the rebel days embodied in his lyrics and sufficiently removed from his youth to limit his rebellion to an isolated George Bush dig in “That’s the Way Love Goes.” At times, it’s difficult for the audience to reconcile the man in the sunglasses and the funny hat with the pardoned convict, lending the performance a strange yet captivating incongruity that produces a Merle Haggard who’s less a warmed-over legend than a still-viable performing artist.

Set list:

“Old-Fashioned Love”
“How Did You Find Me Here?”
“That’s the Way Love Goes”
“Silver Wings”
“I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”
“Back to Earth”
“Are the Good Times Really Over?”
“The Bottle Let Me Down”
“Workin’ Man Blues”
“Kern River”
“Big City”
“The Way I Am”
“Ramblin’ Fever”
“Love’s Always Pretty When It’s New”
“Sing Me Back Home”
“Mama Tried”
“I’m a Lonesome Fugitive”
“I Had A Little Gal (Mule)”
“Half of My Garden is for Willie”
“If I Could Only Fly”
“Fightin’ Side of Me”