A hankering for Haggard

CHECK OUT WHAT FANS AT THE CONCERT HAD TO SAY IN A SPECIAL VIDEO BY THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN.

Country music legend Merle Haggard played at the Show Me Center Tuesday night, and so did his fans.

People in boots and cowboy hats gathered in the Show Me Center parking lot more than two hours before the concert for a tailgate party.

"I first saw Merle 20 years ago in Paducah at the Executive Inn," said Mike Foto of Kelso, Mo. "I've seen him three times in all, I guess. I love Merle, and I have since the first time I heard him in 1970."

Ron and Charlotte Riester of Chaffee, Mo., said that although this is their first Haggard concert, they've loved him for years.

"We both liked him for 40 years or more," Ron Riester said. "This is the first time he's been this close, and we'll see him again if he gets down here again."

Local country music radio station C106.1 hosted the tailgate party, complete with free food, various prize drawings and two horses. One fan won two front-row tickets to the show.

"We did this for the Merle fans," said Randall Lee of C106.1, who was running the tailgate party. "Anywhere he goes these people follow him, all across the country. We just wanted to make this concert even better for them."

The fans inside the Show Me Center were just as busy, buying Haggard merchandise and a CD fans can only purchase at Haggard's performances. Most just couldn't wait to hear him play songs like "Okie From Muskogee."

"This is my first time seeing him, but I've always been a huge fan of Merle," said Thomas Schafer of Marble Hill, Mo. "I just hope he plays all of his old stuff."

Fans screamed and applauded as Merle Haggard took the stage Tuesday at the Show Me Center. (Aaron Eisenhauer)

"I listen to all of his music, really," said Gwen Schafer of Marble Hill, who won a gift certificate at the tailgate party. "I know his newer stuff is political, but I know where I'm at, and he has the right to say whatever he wants, so it doesn't bother me."

Show Me Center marketing director Shannon Buford said Haggard fans know no limits when it comes to seeing the legend in concert.

"Getting Merle in was great all on its own because you have a living legend playing at the Show Me Center," Buford said. "His fans are absolutely perfect. They follow him everywhere, they go out of their way to be at his shows. I actually just bumped into a guy who took a day off at the dock just to be here and then he goes back out on the Mississippi tomorrow. That's the kind of dedication his fans have."

Buford said the concert drew 2,466 people.

Back Roads, the opening band, is a two-man acoustic guitar group and played seven songs including crowd favorites "Midnight Rider" by the Allman Brothers and a Johnny Cash medley.

Haggard's band, the Strangers, played three warm-up songs before Haggard came on stage and opened with "Big City."

A horse stood tied to a trailer in the Show Me Center parking lot as country music radio station C106 hosted a tailgate party that featured giveaways and free food. (Aaron Eisenhauer)

jsamons@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245