BUCK OWENS
Buck Owens (born Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr.; August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006) was an American musician, singer, songwriter and band leader who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band the Buckaroos. They pioneered what came to be called the Bakersfield sound, a reference to Bakersfield, California, the city Owens called home and from which he drew inspiration for what he preferred to call American music. While Owens originally used fiddle and retained pedal steel guitar into the 1970s, his sound on records and onstage was always more stripped-down and elemental. Beginning in 1969, Owens co-hosted the TV series Hee Haw with Roy Clark. Owens is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. (More from Wikipedia)
The last song on the Kim Fowley album Under Ground Animal is the most chilling cautionary tale about the dangers of drug abuse that I have ever heard, “The Story of Susie” by Bill Woods; the chorus (the only part that is sung) goes: “She wanted to be like everyone else / Now she’s all alone in a room by herself”. Along with Buck Owens, Bill Woods with his band the Orange Blossom Playboys was a pioneer of the Bakersfield sounds in country music.
(January 2015/1)
