The Streets Of Bakersfield Mourn

Buck Owens 1929-2006
As is my first-thing daily habit, I check to the Pioneer Press obits. Today's sad news was the death of Buck Owens. Leader of the Buckaroos and Hee Haw star along with Roy Clark, Grampa Jones and a host of others, I've been a long time Buck. My record collection includes a good slice of Buck's greatest and not-so-famous hits.

One of my favorite CDs/LPS/cassettes is Buck Owens and the Buckaroos Live at Carnegie Hall. This is considered one of the best live recordings in country music period. If you want an hour of country music with a generous helping of good ol' buddy stage banter, this is the one to get. In addition to numerous greatest hits compilations, another good Buck CD is Young Buck which contains recordings from the early 1950s. If you're into bands like the Dessert Rose Band, Deraillers or BR-549 and don't know Buck, you will quickly understand who was the biggest influence on these youngsters. If you could get the four Beatles together and ask them who was their favorite country, they would say Buck Owens. Remember, all you got to do is Act Naturally.

If you like that guitar backing up those greatest hits of Buck, I suggest you pick up Don Rich and The Buckaroos: Country Pickin'. Rich was the guitar picker on all of Buck's 1960s hits. He was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1970 and this sent Buck into a long semi-retirement.

Merle Haggard and Buck came out of Bakersfield, CA around the same time. They even had the same wife -- at different times. If you want to listen to one of the big influences of both Haggard and Owens, pick up something by the Maddox Brothers and Rose. You won't be disappointed and you getting an excellent slug of the roots of electric honky-tonk music.

As Tom T. Hall wrote in "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died":

I know a lot of good preachers, who know a lot more than I do
But I bet the good Lord likes a little pickin' too...

Hee Haw!

Read more: Newsday.com