Merle Haggard & Mark O'Connor at the White House, President Reagan (1982)

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In Performance at the White House series w/ Merle Haggard and Mark O'Connor performing at President Ronald Reagan's Ranch in California, May 5th, 1982
Primary Guests
Ronald Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Merle Haggard
The Strangers
Tiny Moore
Norm Hamlet
Stephane Grapelli
Mark O'Connor
Beverly Sills
Director Kirk Browning
Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Nancy,
Haggard, Merle
Moore, Tiny
Grappelli, Stephane
O'Connor, Mark
Sills, Beverly
Description Contents: opens with footage of various musicians and artists performing outdoors with ‘Young Artists In Performance at the White House’ title card / (02:29) Beverly Sills provides voiceover intro to the program and welcome to President Ronald Reagan’s “Rancho Sierra Grande” in California where the concert will take place / (03:58) Outside on ranch, under covered pavilion****, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan walk through the crowd and the First Lady takes the stage to announce the show and guest Merle Haggard, Mark O’ Connor / (07:03) Merle Haggard takes the stage to join the Strangers, puts on guitar, and begins “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”/ (10:52) Merle Haggard and the Strangers “Silver Wings” / (14:13) Merle Haggard and the Strangers “Workin’ Man Blues” / (18:11) Merle Haggard and the Strangers “My Favorite Memory” / (21:17) Merle Haggard and the Strangers “Footlights” / (25:34) Merle Haggard and the Strangers “Okie from Muskogee” / (28:38) Beverly Sills comes onstage and asks Haggard about where his style of music comes from, and Haggard says it comes may roots and then talks about his newfound affinity for ‘Big Band’ music and says he will do one and suggests “Pennies from Heaven” / (30:57) Merle Haggard and the Strangers “Pennies from Heaven” / (33:18) video segment of Merle Haggard on his house boat on Lake Shasta / (33:21) Haggard talking about his family and upbringing, the influence of Bob Wills, and what one must give up for fame / (35:28) Haggard, still on lake, talks about fiddle player Mark O’Connor / (35:45) Stephane Grapelli discusses Mark O’Connor’s talent / (36:12) video footage of national fiddle competitions with voiceover form Beverly Sills and interview with competition judge Herman Johnson (37:15) Byron Berline, another competition judge talks about Mark O’ Connor’s talent followed by O’Connor onstage / (38:00) cut back to Haggard on the lake talking about O’Connor / (38:17) cut to ranch stage performance with Mark O’Connor on fiddle performing unidentified song / (42:25) Beverly Sills comes onstage and interviews Mark O’Connor / (43:08) Fiddle Instrumental with Mark O'Connor, Merle Haggard, both on fiddle and many band members on fiddle / (48:27) President Ronald Reagan comes to the stage and thanks Merle Haggard and Mark O’Connor and Beverly Sills for bringing together such a group, and asks America to take pride in this type of creativity that can only come from freedom and closes by asking Haggard to do a couple more/ (52:10) Merle Haggard and the Strangers “Are the Good Times Really Over” / (55:48) Merle Haggard and the Strangers “Rainbow Stew” / (57:00) credits begin to roll while performance continues in background
" SANTA YNEZ VALLEY, Calif., March 7- The country-western singer Merle Haggard, who spent nearly three years in San Quentin Prison for attempted burglary and who was later pardoned by the Governor of California, sang today for the man who pardoned him, President Reagan.
''I hope the President will be as pleased with my performance today as I was with his pardon 10 years ago,'' Mr. Haggard said before the concert. Commenting through his deputy press secretary, Larry Speakes, the President said that although ''Merle Haggard's music is now the heart and soul of America,'' the pardon was ''routine'' and had simply ''come up through the system.''
The President and Mrs. Reagan and 400 invited guests sat on bales of hay in a tin-roofed arena at the Sierra Grande Ranch in the Santa Ynez Mountains three hours north of Los Angeles by car, listening to Mr. Haggard perform such foot-stomping, flag-waving songs as ''Okie From Muskogee'' and ''Are the Good Times Really Over?'' Under an overcast sky on a chilly day, Mr. Haggard was joined on the makeshift stage by Mark O'Connor, a tall and scrawny 20-year-old fiddler who has already won the grand national fiddle championship three consecutive times." -New York Times (May 8, 1982)
For more information on Mark O'Connor, String Camps, The O'Connor Method, ensembles, repertoire, sheet music and more, please visit www.oconnormeth...
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[@TauvyT]

Best tenor guitar player ever.

[@patriciajrs46]

Merle was terrific. So is Mark. He has done so well.

[@stevenlester2606]

it's funny that the greatest fiddler that ever lived gets to keep his hippy haircut when playing before the President. I'm glad to see it.

[@Farrah300]

It's actually fitting that Merle Haggard would perform at the White House as 10 years earlier, he received a pardon form then-Governor Ronald Reagan.

[@jbatty1861]

Merle is on great voice here. I love the eyebrows when he says "we don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee". Mark oconnor & tiny moore wow! What's with the guy on tenor guitar- he's really working it. Then Rainbow Stew for a closer for pres Reagan. Just, wow!

[@0108dylan]

Reagan gave him a pardon for past crimes when he was governor of California. That’s when Merle admitted to his copious pot use.

[@TauvyT]

Tenor guitar was Jerry Thomason - my father. :)

[@alexcrawford5350]

Can’t believe I didn’t find this video 2 years ago or so when I was looking! I wanted to see a live performance of him performing “Rainbow Stew” from back in the 1980s and I found one!

[@j.s.3113]

This is so cool. When I was listening to Mama Tried, Merle and Bakersfield swing in High School I was also listening Doc Watson, John McLaughlin, Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner and John Williams (Guitarist of course). Mark brought it all together and bridged the musical genres to provide the soundtrack of my life. But I would be remiss without a shout out to the greatest collaboration of acoustic musicians ever in Strength In Numbers. Look forward to Crossing Bridges at MIM.

[@alexcrawford5350]

8:23 Hah, I thought that was Merle Haggard playing the saxophone until the camera panned back to show the majority of the musicians on the stage at 8:33!

[@user-tr3kf9hs6g]

Super cool Mark! I wish you could do this again in the next 8 yrs for history sake.

[@edwardseymour4930]

Great show!….

[@brianhackert8513]

how come i can't find a video of "are the good times really over" from this concert where the audience clammed up at the lyric "nixon lied to us all on tv"? it's hilarious!

[@patriciajrs46]

You tube takes out controversy.

[@jzonkel]

Let me know if you ever find it

[@t4texastom587]

I think a certain Mr. Wills would have liked Mark. WoW🎻

[@rentcda]

Would have been bad a$$ if Ron and Nancy started two steppn!

[@Yobbie72]

This ain't the White House; its a ranch

[@johnbruno6868]

So what do you call that Bigsby Instrument that "Tiny" is playing?

[@logicalpolice]

5-string electric mandolin

[@grendo45]

8:47 Absolute bruh moment

[@sethfisher5081]

and now no state has more medical marijuana cards per capita than Oklahoma. The big box stores have ruined Main St. Oxycontin and methamphetamine use are rampant. Mainly thanks to the decimation of the middle class that started under Reagan.

[@amaquonsippi]

True

[@ritasousa844]

Do mesmo jeito que merle ganhou indulto de Reagan porque Silveira não pode né

[@jameswilhite8522]

White lightning?

[@kurtpena5462]

What dreadful lyrics from Haggard: Marijuana bad, moonshine good. He must have disapproved of Mark's hair. Great duet with Tiny Moore on Sweet Georgia Brown!

[@beaulahsuttle6662]

j

[@hubertsumlin9697]

satire? not satire? did merle even know?