The Grateful Dead covered several Merle Haggard tunes for many years, dating back to the early 70s and maybe even the late 60s. (Not "Okie," though ~ or, if and when they did play that one, they couldn't have treated it as seriously as they did, say, "Mama Tried.") So this isn't all that earth-shaking a development.

Also on the bill with Merle and Bob is a young singer-songwriter named Amos Lee. I had never heard him before seeing him play one song on Letterman's Late Night TV show earlier this week. Very nice: good song, good delivery.

His band has nearly-standard rock 'n' roll instrumentation, but their approach is so subtle and low-key that the effect is almost that of a "folk" group, allowing Amos' acoustic guitar picking to be heard.

There's a second guitar (electric Les Paul, played with great restraint by a seated picker), a drum kit (played with brushes), an electric organ (I think a Hammond B-3), and a stand-up acoustic bass fiddle.

Of course, I only heard the one song, one carefully selected for the kid's network TV debut. For all I know, there might be other numbers for which the drummer drops the brushes in favor or sticks, and the lead guitar stands up and turns all his dials up to eleven. But somehow, I don't think so.