Went to see Merle Haggard's early show at the Fox last night with my friends
George and Deloris and what a wonderful place to see a band. The last time I
was there was to see Joan Baez and the venue has a  grand, yet intimate feel
to it.
Merle played all his classics ,including "Daddy Frank", which I was quite
pleased about, because the last time I saw him at Crystal Palace last year
he didn't play it and I was a bit upset about that.
The classics weren't enough for one man sitting in front of us, who got
ejected for (I think) demanding rather too vociferously that Merle play
"Okie from Muskogee."
Maybe his language was a little blue because the Fox's crack security squad
spirited him out of there on the double.
Merle did play "Okie" later in the show, most likely while the shouter was on his way home. Unlucky!
The funniest part of the show was when Merle stopped singing for a bit to
talk about the whole street sign thing. He called Dean Florez, Dan Florez
and then completely butchered the pronunciation of Jon McQuiston's name,
which was quite unfortunate because McQuiston then appeared on stage with a
check (I think) for the street sign fund. McQuiston actually told a pretty
nice story about when he was stationed around here somewhere after the
Vietnam war and there was a bit of dissatisfaction with the military at that
time, but McQuiston said Merle's songs made him proud to be serving his
country.
The crowd loved it and I smiled because I was wearing my "If You Don't Love
It Leave It" T-shirt which I had purchased for the outrageous sum of $25 at
the Crystal Palace show.
As we were on our way out we passed the waiting multitude crowded around the
Fox's entrance for the later show.
If it was going to be anything like the one I had just seen, they were in
for a real treat.