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3-27-06, 11:24 AM
from www.usatoday.com
Buck Owens shaped sound of country
By Ken Barnes, USA TODAY
Buck Owens, arguably as much as any artist, built the musical foundations for modern country music.
Owens, who died Saturday at 76 of heart failure at his home in Bakersfield, Calif., jump-started a slick '60s Nashville sound with a jolt of energy borrowed from rock and a uniquely Western honky-tonk realism.
He was as big a star as country produced in the '60s, racking up 19 No. 1 hits and 14 other top 10 records. It was Owens' hit Act Naturally that became Ringo Starr's Beatles showcase, and Ray Charles covered the country star's classics Cryin' Time and Together Again.
Powered by the crisp guitar licks of the late Don Rich and the driving rhythms of backing band The Buckaroos, Owens' hits jumped out of the radio, contrasting with the strings-laden Nashville productions of the era. Owens was the driving force in establishing his home base, Bakersfield, as the only serious modern rival to Nashville's grip on country music, as he, protégé Merle Haggard, Wynn Stewart and Tommy Collins saturated radio airwaves.
Although Owens cooled off on the charts by 1974, cutting such novelties as On the Cover of the Music City News, Monsters' Holiday and You Ain't Gonna Have Ol' Buck to Kick Around No More, a parallel career made him even more widely known to the American public at large: He co-hosted the country comedy series Hee Haw from 1969 to 1986.
That bucolic role unfairly pigeonholed him in many people's eyes, but his musical reputation was restored in 1988 when a duet with then-hot new star Dwight Yoakam, Streets of Bakersfield, became Owens' first No. 1 hit in 16 years.
Yoakam was an avid Owens booster ("I will cherish forever the musical moments he graciously shared with me during his life," Yoakam told the Associated Press) and helped fire him up to take one last whack at the country charts in 1989, when he had minor hits with Hot Dog, a rockabilly tune he had cut as Corky Jones in the '50s, and a duet on Act Naturally with, fittingly, Ringo Starr.
Not that he needed the royalties — Owens was successful in real estate and radio. In recent years, Owens played regular gigs at his Crystal Palace club in Bakersfield, the last one Friday night.
In 1965, Owens caused a stir by pledging in the Music City News, "I shall sing no song that is not a country song." A month later, he released an album that included a cover of Chuck Berry's Memphis, and in 1969 he had a hit with Berry's Johnny B. Goode and the decidedly folk-rocking Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass.
But he wasn't contradicting himself: Owens was one of those rare musicians whose style was so distinctive and definitive that everything he recorded became a Buck Owens song.
Ten Owens tunes that will leave you grinnin'
With his crisp, stylized vocals and crackling backup from The Buckaroos, Buck Owens put a strong stamp on any song he tackled. Ken Barnes picks 10 essential Owens tracks.
Mental Cruelty (duet with Rose Maddox, 1961): Buck plays victim in a starkly bitter divorce number.
Act Naturally (1963): The Beatles' version is as close a copy as they could carbon, but the original is classic uptempo Owens.
Together Again (1964): Buck was no slouch with a ballad, and this classic was so strong it inspired a 1979 duet with Emmylou Harris called Play Together Again Again.
Hello Trouble (1964): Not Buck's song originally but an album track that captures his rollicking-with-a-heartache side. Great 1989 hit cover by the Desert Rose Band.
I've Got a Tiger by the Tail (1965): Like Act Naturally, a candidate for the song you'd pick if you had just one to define the Buck Owens sound.
Cryin' Time (1965): Amazingly, this ballad for the ages was relegated to the B-side of the Tiger single.
Buckaroo (by The Buckaroos, 1965): One for the boys in the band; the country instrumental at its best.
Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass (1969): Anyone who thinks Owens is musically one-dimensional hasn't heard this adventurous hit, on which he nimbly adapted the rock guitar textures of the era to country.
I Wouldn't Live in New York City (If They Gave Me the Whole Dang Town) (1970): A mission statement for his country constituency, and funny besides.
Streets of Bakersfield (duet with Dwight Yoakam, 1988): How great was it to hear classic Buck on the radio again in '88? Yoakam performs one of the grand acts of musical homage.
Buck Owens shaped sound of country
By Ken Barnes, USA TODAY
Buck Owens, arguably as much as any artist, built the musical foundations for modern country music.
Owens, who died Saturday at 76 of heart failure at his home in Bakersfield, Calif., jump-started a slick '60s Nashville sound with a jolt of energy borrowed from rock and a uniquely Western honky-tonk realism.
He was as big a star as country produced in the '60s, racking up 19 No. 1 hits and 14 other top 10 records. It was Owens' hit Act Naturally that became Ringo Starr's Beatles showcase, and Ray Charles covered the country star's classics Cryin' Time and Together Again.
Powered by the crisp guitar licks of the late Don Rich and the driving rhythms of backing band The Buckaroos, Owens' hits jumped out of the radio, contrasting with the strings-laden Nashville productions of the era. Owens was the driving force in establishing his home base, Bakersfield, as the only serious modern rival to Nashville's grip on country music, as he, protégé Merle Haggard, Wynn Stewart and Tommy Collins saturated radio airwaves.
Although Owens cooled off on the charts by 1974, cutting such novelties as On the Cover of the Music City News, Monsters' Holiday and You Ain't Gonna Have Ol' Buck to Kick Around No More, a parallel career made him even more widely known to the American public at large: He co-hosted the country comedy series Hee Haw from 1969 to 1986.
That bucolic role unfairly pigeonholed him in many people's eyes, but his musical reputation was restored in 1988 when a duet with then-hot new star Dwight Yoakam, Streets of Bakersfield, became Owens' first No. 1 hit in 16 years.
Yoakam was an avid Owens booster ("I will cherish forever the musical moments he graciously shared with me during his life," Yoakam told the Associated Press) and helped fire him up to take one last whack at the country charts in 1989, when he had minor hits with Hot Dog, a rockabilly tune he had cut as Corky Jones in the '50s, and a duet on Act Naturally with, fittingly, Ringo Starr.
Not that he needed the royalties — Owens was successful in real estate and radio. In recent years, Owens played regular gigs at his Crystal Palace club in Bakersfield, the last one Friday night.
In 1965, Owens caused a stir by pledging in the Music City News, "I shall sing no song that is not a country song." A month later, he released an album that included a cover of Chuck Berry's Memphis, and in 1969 he had a hit with Berry's Johnny B. Goode and the decidedly folk-rocking Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass.
But he wasn't contradicting himself: Owens was one of those rare musicians whose style was so distinctive and definitive that everything he recorded became a Buck Owens song.
Ten Owens tunes that will leave you grinnin'
With his crisp, stylized vocals and crackling backup from The Buckaroos, Buck Owens put a strong stamp on any song he tackled. Ken Barnes picks 10 essential Owens tracks.
Mental Cruelty (duet with Rose Maddox, 1961): Buck plays victim in a starkly bitter divorce number.
Act Naturally (1963): The Beatles' version is as close a copy as they could carbon, but the original is classic uptempo Owens.
Together Again (1964): Buck was no slouch with a ballad, and this classic was so strong it inspired a 1979 duet with Emmylou Harris called Play Together Again Again.
Hello Trouble (1964): Not Buck's song originally but an album track that captures his rollicking-with-a-heartache side. Great 1989 hit cover by the Desert Rose Band.
I've Got a Tiger by the Tail (1965): Like Act Naturally, a candidate for the song you'd pick if you had just one to define the Buck Owens sound.
Cryin' Time (1965): Amazingly, this ballad for the ages was relegated to the B-side of the Tiger single.
Buckaroo (by The Buckaroos, 1965): One for the boys in the band; the country instrumental at its best.
Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass (1969): Anyone who thinks Owens is musically one-dimensional hasn't heard this adventurous hit, on which he nimbly adapted the rock guitar textures of the era to country.
I Wouldn't Live in New York City (If They Gave Me the Whole Dang Town) (1970): A mission statement for his country constituency, and funny besides.
Streets of Bakersfield (duet with Dwight Yoakam, 1988): How great was it to hear classic Buck on the radio again in '88? Yoakam performs one of the grand acts of musical homage.