Merle Haggard
had been one of
country
music's biggest stars and most uncompromising talents for more than a dozen years when he rolled into the
KLRU-TV
studios in Austin, TX for a taping of
PBS
's long-running music series
Austin City Limits
in early 1978. (It's said that
Haggard
had never heard of the show at the time, but was persuaded to take the gig by friend and superfan
Darrell K Royal
, coach of the University of Texas football team). At this point,
was soon to leave
Capitol Records
and the most successful period of his career was ending, but you get very little sense of that on
Live from Austin TX
, which features his
ACL
performance complete and unedited.
sounds casual but focused on this set, running through a few of his hits with appropriate conviction (
"Silver Wings,"
"Sing Me Back Home,"
and
"I'm a Lonesome Fugitive"
among them) and dipping into a few lesser-known songs with a palpable emotional gravity (
"Long Black Limousine"
"Farmer's Daughter"
).
Hag
also takes advantage of playing for an audience in the Lone Star State and covers a handful of classic
Bob Wills
numbers, where he shows off his rough but enthusiastic fiddle playing (as well as some more polished work from
Paul Anastasio
Gordon Terry
's ten-piece band on this date sometimes lacks the lean but potent feel of his classic recordings, but there's no arguing their chops, and the additional fiddles and horns work just fine on the Western swing tunes, while
Norman Hamlet
on pedal steel and
Roy Nichols
on electric guitar make a great combination.
doesn't sound like he's working too hard to win over the crowd on
, but after the first song it's clear he doesn't have to, and by the end of the show he's clearly given them just what they've come to hear; this is a solid live set from one of
music's true originals. [
Live from Austin, TX 1978
was released as a two-disc set featuring an audio CD and a video DVD.] ~ Mark Deming