Muskogee’s G Fest to offer heartfelt Okie tributes
Merle Haggard embodied the “Okie From Muskogee,” but his son hasn’t visited Muskogee yet.
“It’s the first time on my end,” Ben Haggard told The Oklahoman. “It’ll be kinda cool actually seeing the town. My bloodline has a strong connection to Oklahoma, although I’m California born and raised . ... However, I’ve been able to get along with people from Oklahoma. When I meet someone I like from Oklahoma, I go, ‘No wonder I can get along with you so well.’ There’s some sort of connection between us.”
Ben Haggard and his half-brother, Noel Haggard, are carrying their dad’s Stranger legacy back to his honorary home Saturday with a G Fest set list of Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash songs. Dozens of national, regional and Okie also will perform throughout the weekend for the second rendition of G Fest, a newly organized outdoor festival in Muskogee. A number of tribute sets are scattered throughout the festival lineup, too.
Outlaw country tunes and covers are par for the course for any Hag show, and the set aims to honor their dad’s request to continue his tradition.
The Hag left behind plenty of material.
Ben Haggard continues to be surprised when he uncovers one of his dad’s unreleased live tracks on the internet. He compared it to finding treasure. But how about learning something new about his father?
“No,” Ben said without hesitation. “I got a pretty good feel for who he was. He’s everything that people thought he was. He was a very good person. There’s not a lot I can learn about him that I didn’t already know. We were very close.”
If Merle Haggard wasn’t recording music, then he was on the road. That outlaw spirit hasn’t stopped and won’t any time soon. At a recent star-studded tribute on the anniversary of Merle’s April passing, Keith Richards said it best: “This isn’t saying goodbye. Think of this as Merle’s first birthday.”
“It’s a nice reminder to see his music affect people you didn’t realize it touched,” Ben Haggard said. “You hear about these people that are big fans, but they prove the point when they honor The Hag. They have their favorite songs they want to sing for him.”
Merle Haggard’s impact remains vibrant, but his son knows he’s still missing the Stranger’s
main ingredient.
“He played a key role in bringing the attitude,” Ben Haggard said. “When Merle Haggard walked up to any situation, he brought something with him that you can’t put a finger on. That’s what made him Merle. There’s still the feeling onstage.”
Ben Haggard called that feeling magical.
“Norm Hamlet (steel guitarist) has been a Stranger since 1967. He’s 83, and he still has a lot of that magic that someone can bring to the bandstand. I think the Strangers loved to play and loved to hear Merle play. They all had their part in the band. That’s what they’ll see in Muskogee. They’ll see that the magic’s still there.”
Magic or not, it’s still a lot of work picking up what The Hag left behind. Ben Haggard borrowed a quote from Roy Nichols, who played lead guitar in the Strangers before Ben Haggard picked up that mantle at age 15. Performing live is the hardest job you’ll ever enjoy, he said.
“Watching someone from the crowd, it looks so much easier that it is,” he said. “It’s hard to step up in front of that mic. Every eye is on you. Your job is to entertain, to say the right thing and then also hit the right note. Mentally, it’s very taxing. It’s also the most enjoyable thing to do in your life.”
Ben Haggard’s role has grown from being a young gun Stranger to singing alongside his older brother, who was alive to see their father at his prime.
“Noel is one of my idols, and I look up to him,” Ben Haggard said. “He’s really kept our relationship together. He’s my hero in a sense. He’s got a little more experience on the mic and we feed off each other onstage.”
At the end of the day, Ben Haggard said he’s thankful to have a place to play.
“The music our father left us is deeply rooted in our hearts,” he said. “We don’t want to ride Merle’s coattails. Our intention is pure and simple: to honor our father.
Lifelong friend
Jimmy Markham said goodbye to his lifelong friend, Leon Russell, twice in 2016.
Once at a memorial service and again in front of a packed house at Cain’s Ballroom. Sitting next to a buddy at Russell’s Mabee Center memorial, Markham knew he had to do something. The next morning the Pryor native worked with Jim Blair and Larry Shaeffer to secure an evening at Cain’s Ballroom and start building a backing band.
30 days later, “Leon: The Tribute” was born.
“I’ve never taken on this tribute thing on a half-ass basis,” Markham told The
Oklahoman. “That’s the way I’m gonna put it. It had to be good to be a Leon tribute. This guy was something else. We had a lifelong friendship . ... It couldn’t be a fly-by-night deal. It had to be quality. The quality was there. Thank God there are those players coming up in this town that can do that. His stuff is not everyday rock ‘n’ roll. It has substance to it. It’s not easy stuff to play or sing. I was just blown away by the guys performing this and what they did with their material.”
Three hours after the doors to Cain’s Ballroom were open on Dec. 15, the tribute band was still playing. Markham and Co. are returning for an encore of their “Leon” set at G Fest. It’ll be shorter, but will feature a lot of the same talent. Bo Cherron, Bryan Lee, Casey Van Beek, Jamie Oldaker, John Fullbright and Paul Benjaman are just a few of the players scheduled to perform during Friday night’s set.
“There’s a circle of musicians who are passionate about this thing called the Tulsa Sound,” Markham said. “That term was around my circle back in the ‘50s. I don’t know where it came from. We never endorsed that title. We never thought about it. It was just something the press stared using a lot. It kinda stuck. We became the Tulsa Sound, whatever that is.”
Weird science
Church can be at a dive bar in Tulsa.
You might not find God, but the music’s great.
There’s a dedicated cast of musicians who’ve been performing and attending Tom Skinner’s Wednesday Night Science Project since the turn of the turn of the millennium. Held at The Colony, the concert celebration is a way for friends and family to not only celebrate Skinner’s red dirt influence but also his spirit for supporting younger musicians. Bristow native Tom Skinner died July 12, 2015, of congestive heart failure.
“Colony is a like a clubhouse for musicians,” said longtime Science Project player Don Morris. “There’s always music there. Musicians always show up. We always have a special guest.”
Tulsa’s Morris still attends and will help continue what Skinner started to G Fest alongside Brad James, Rick Gomez, Dylan Layton and a few special guests including Monica Taylor. Each night of G Fest is bookended with a Science Project set.
“We talked to Tom’s son, Jeremy, about it to make sure it was OK to use his name and keep it going,” Morris said. “A lot of people call it going to church, Wednesday night service. I often have two or three people come up and thank me for keeping it going. That’s reward enough.”