Dream Tour For The Common Man Feb 2005, Pollstar Magazine
The spirit of Woody Guthrie must be dusting off the old suitcases and getting ready to take to the great highway again, with two of his most lauded musical descendants mounting a spring tour of most West Coast dates so far. Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard are kindred spirit singer/songwriters; one is country and the other a little bit rock ‘n' roll. These should be rollicking shows, with Bob bringing along his band and Merle appearing with The Strangers. Amos Lee will come along for the ride as well.
Intimate theater gigs with two superstars of the caliber of Dylan and Haggard don't come around very often, and most of the tour dates confirmed so far include extended runs. "The Bob Show" kicks off March 7 with a three-night stand at Seattle's Paramount Theater and heads down the West Coast, hitting Portland, Ore., Oakland, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago on on East...
Ironies in the fire...paradoxes in the evolution of the life and times. As one writer put it in an article, "Hearing Merle Haggard's combative, love-it-or-leave-it anthem "Fightin' Side of Me" and Bob Dylan's primal, prophetic call-to-action "The Times They Are a Changin'" on the same bill was one of many up-is-down, down-is-up, left is right and right is left moments Monday night as the two music legends opened a five-night run at the Paramount in Seattle, Wa."
"Not only does George Strait belong on the Mt. Rushmore, I think he’d be second to only Merle Haggard and the argument would come down to who was third and fourth. Probably Dolly and Hank Sr, but you could make a case for others like George Jones and Loretta Lynn."
Taste of Country Jan 2024
Tis a chapter in Chronicle 2 in my Memoir Trilogy of Waiting for A Train, and I could have written a book about this magic carpet ride of a tour with two of the greats, to say the least. I was part of the coming together and I documented it in Hunter S. Thompson style like the Okie historian that people don't know who he thinks he is.
ALL ABOARD FOR 55 DAYS & 39 SOLD OUT SHOWS WITH THE HAG AND DYLAN
Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard & Benford
2005 on Dylans' Never Ending Tour
After some searching around on the Internet I find that this Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard tour might be kickin' up more dust than any music event in a long time. Kinda has the ring of when Dylan went to Nashville and teamed up with Johnny Cash and the synergy between the two not only created the Nashville Skyline album and brought much of the recording industry to "tune town," but was a mark in the beginning of "country rock," that spurred the "outlaw" movement and southern rock. Or, when Gram Parsons teamed up with the Byrds...and there are some interesting links between Merle and Gram and Dylan and the Byrds.
“I have been knowing Benford about 10 to 12 years. When I ran into him
I realized that he was in a search for all the music history information he
could find. Seems like every time we get together, we end up in the same area, something about country music history. He is a history buff (…) and I guess I am too.”
MERLE HAGGARD