George & Merle

My friend Linda works in marketing at Ford Park in Beaumont. She asked me one day awhile back if I'd be interested in seeing George Jones, a native of Southeast Texas, and Merle Haggard live in concert. I'm not much into country music, but this was a no-brainer. Two American music icons who beat death and prison so many times it's amazing they're alive at all, much less still singing.

To my ears, Merle has the better voice, the better band and the better choice in music. To watch him on stage, he seems feeble. But if you close your eyes, you only hear his amazing, true voice as strong as it ever was. At times he sounded more like Willie or Johnny than Merle.

But George was the star of this show. He's such a cornball, but has a good heart and a decent sense of humor about his life as a drunk. He joked about his lawn mower in Vidor, a little town east of Beaumont. He used to live there way back, and he got drunk one day and ran out of whiskey. Tammy wouldn't let him have the car, so he got on the riding mower to head to the liquor store. He may be the only person in Vidor to ever get a DWI driving a lawn mower. But, then again, I've been to Vidor and I would seriously doubt it.

Vlad, whose musical tastes run to disco and Russian chanson, was a good sport. I told him this was kind of like seeing the Mick Jagger and David Bowie of country music. Not a great analogy, but the best I could do on short notice.

Hearing Okie from Muskogee strangely brought back some of my childhood. I was too young to be a hippy, but I remember the culture wars. My dad liked that song. I grew up in a family and a church that could have been represented by that song. I wanted to explain to Vlad about those days and the Cold War stuff that was wrapped up in it. But he's not really one to contemplate 30-year-old suburban American life.

Probably a good thing.

Rodeo and cancer

My friend Linda and her husband, Terry, got us free tickets to the Houston Rodeo this year. We got Sheryl Crow tickets, but about a week ago, Crow canceled because she was diagnosed with breast cancer. So rocker Melissa Etheridge stepped in to take her place. Etheridge is a breast cancer survivor, herself, and still sports a close-cropped haircut since her chemotherapy. She's become something of a voice -- rocking, bluesy and raspy as it is -- for cancer survival. She's written a song that has anthem potential called "Run for Life" or something. All I knew about Melissa Etheridge before today was she was a pretty kick-ass rocker, a lesbian who got David Crosby to donate sperm for her child with her lover. There was lots of pink everywhere. On the horses, even.

Tonight was one of those strange times when juxtaposition ironies rule. I'm going to this concert with Linda, who survived colon cancer a couple of years ago. My husband, a cancer survivor for four years, is driving us there. On the way, Mom calls to tell me my Uncle Denny was diagnosed yesterday with cancer. Etheridge spoke honestly about cancer. Said not to fear it.

And she rocked out. Incredible. It was one of those rare performances that hits you on several levels. And the audience seemed a little closer because of the cancer stuff, but also because we all felt kind of lucky that we got to see her through this strange twist of circumstances.

It was wonderful.