Search - Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ray Price :: Live From The Last Of The Breed Tour

This One You Will Wish Lasted Longer

Stephanie DePue | Carolina Beach, NC USA | 03/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Live from the Last of the Breed Tour" is, as it says, a live CD that catches three country music greats, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Ray Price, in concert in March 2007, on their recent tour,Willie Nelson - Last of the Breed. These three old friends, who do seem to love to ramble, and to make music together, have been doing it for decades-- they've nearly 100 years of performance among them-- and all are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. They may well be the last of the great honky tonk performers, and the last of the Texas Swingers, too. They are here backed in concert by the Grammy-winning Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel, and Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys. We get 16 varied tracks on this sonically-rich CD; approximately 50 minutes' worth of music.



The record is opened by Asleep at the Wheel, giving us a swinging "Miles and Miles of Texas." We then hear silky country crooner Price, delivering two of his biggest hits: a melodic "Make the World Go Away," and a heart-felt Kris Kristofferson number, "For the Good Times." Price will return later on an emotionally resonant "Night Life," which Nelson had a hand in writing.



Merle Haggard has been quoted as saying that music saved his life. He once told the late country music great Johnny Cash that every one of the three concerts Cash gave at California's San Quentin prison was very important to him. Cash replied that he didn't remember Haggard's playing with him on those occasions. Haggard replied that he'd simply been incarcerated there. He here performs several of his hits, such as the up-tempo, fun "Take me Back to Tulsa," and, possibly his biggest, another up-tempo fun one, "Okie from Muskogee," which he wrote himself. He duets on this with Nelson, that senior citizen hippie, while a bass comments on the proceedings; this entertaining song thereby gets some further unexpected spice. Haggard also duets with Nelson on Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty," reprising the deservedly popular favorite that they recorded together years ago. Haggard further delivers a thoughtful "That's The Way Love Goes," by Lefty Frizzell and Sanger D. (Whitey) Shafer; and more of his own work: the sweet "Silver Wings,"and "Send Me Back Home." And the rollicking duo "Mama Tried;" and "Ramblin' Fever," again with Nelson.



Nelson does just seem to like to travel and make music with his friends. I was once lucky enough to catch him in New York's Central Park, on a beautiful blue sky spring evening, playing with Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, then calling themselves The Highwaymen. Anyway, on this CD, Nelson and Price duet on the timeless, thoughtful "Crazy," one of the first songs Nelson ever wrote; it was a big career-making hit for Patsy Cline. The Texan also does a warm "You Were Always on My Mind," and let-the-good-times-roll versions of his own "On the Road Again," and "Whiskey River." All three men get together to give us "I Gotta Have My Baby Back."



These men, living legends all, have the knack of delivering an emotionally-laden song; yet doing it with a clean, understated approach: guess it takes a hundred years of practice to learn this art. I'm often bored with a CD long before it's done; this one I wish lasted longer.





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