THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504020050
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Bonnie Owens, the star's ex-wife and longtime backing singer, announced a surprise Saturday night at the Boathouse: ``Merle Haggard showed up!''
Haggard, a recent inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame, has never had the reputation of being a no-show to the extent that George Jones once did - but he has moodily skipped a gig once or twice over the years.
Fortunately for the large crowd at the Norfolk venue, Haggard was in the room and ready to prove his continued artistic viability in a world of cookie-cutter suburban stars. The hour-long set stressed the mid-century country, blues and Western swing roots at the heart of his sound, with no less than three Bob Wills songs receiving his mellow-voiced treatment.
Although much of the set list was composed of hits more than a decade old, Haggard's jazz-informed, emotionally acute phrasing kept each song fresh.
He arranged many of the songs in thematic mini-sets, delivering the wry ``I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink'' after a deliciously rhythmic medley of ``Honky Tonk Night Time Man'' and ``Old Man From the Mountain.''
Later, his usually ruminative style grew even more so with a string of subdued ballad performances: ``You Don't Have Very Far to Go,'' ``That's the Way Love Goes'' and ``Misery and Gin.''
And though it would be hard to cite a single most moving moment in the show, it might well have been the lovely version of ``The Farmer's Daughter'' on which Haggard featured his own fiddle playing and a vocal that seemed to hark back to the folk songs of centuries ago. by CNB