Honky Tonk Highway

Merle Haggard has never been one to take a step backwards when it comes to social issues and in an interview with a John Boyd in the San Angelos Standard Times just a couple of days ago the Hag gave George Bush a double serve on his administration of the US as a whole. Haggard has even considered moving to another country to back up his "talk". Wonder if he'd consider Sydney if we could promise him a couple of gigs each week?

Also an interesting side note on the protests by the "illegal" immigrants in the US last week. Here's a link (it's a yousendit thingy - you have to download it and play it in iTunes or your preferred MP3 player) to an MP3 of a song Merle picked up and recorded over 20 years ago. It has a cool country lilt not dissimilar to some of the early Jimmy Buffet style but with a definite Merle Haggard label. Unknown author. (The recording is off an old tape and suffers a little in quality but it's only 1.26MB so you don't have much to lose):

The Immigrant (As sung by Merle Haggard)

American Ranching consists of a mansion
Where illegal immigrants do much of the labor by hand
They sneak em thru customs Till time comes to bust em
Then haul em back over the border to their own native land
With a ragged Sombrero and not much Dinero
They'll be back again When the Rio Grande's way down low
So Border Patroller don't stop the stroller
Cause the Illegal Immigrant is helping America grow

Chorus
Viva La Mexico Go where they let you go
And do what you can for the land
Take home Dinero And buy new Sombrero
And come back again when you can
(Music)

What makes a gringo Your smart aleck lingo
When you stole this land from the Indian way back when
Don't he remember the big money lender
That put him a lien where his pencil had been
The almighty peso That gives him the say so
To dry up the River Whenever there's crops to bring in
Such a good neighbor To take all his Labor
And take him back over the border
Till they need him again
(Chorus)