Buck Owens

[Robertjack]

Buck Owens, the man credited with developing the Bakersfield Sound, was a multi-skilled singer, guitarist, songwriter, bandleader and music businessman. With his band, the Buckaroos, he played a souped-up honky-tonk style that drew upon the sounds of Webb Pierce and Lefty Frizzell, while forging ahead to embrace the energy of 1960s rock. Based out in Bakersfield, California, it was at odds with the smooth Nashville Sound that featured muted guitars, sweet strings and heavenly choirs. More than any other single person, Owens paved the way for the West Coast Sound, opening the doors for Merle Haggard and others, and setting the scene for Gram Parsons, the Byrds and the early 1970s country-rock. More importantly, he also made an impact with the Beatles, who were just beginning their invasion of America. The Liverpool mop-heads cut a cover version of one of Owens’ hits, Act Naturally, with Ringo Starr handling lead vocals, for their HELP! album. They placed their cover version on the flip side of their American-only Yesterday single and made the American pop charts in 1965. When the Beatles were in Los Angeles, they requested all of Owens’ albums from Capitol Records and there were even plans for Owens to meet up with the Beatles. Buck and the Buckaroos donned Beatles’ wigs when they played the legendary Carnegie Hall for a ‘live’ album in 1964.

Owens was a different kind of country music star. He played Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the London Palladium and Royal Albert Hall not the Grand Ole Opry. He lived for Bakersfield, not Nashville. Nevertheless, several generations of musicians—from the Beatles and Gram Parsons in the 1960s to Dwight Yoakam in the 1980s and Brad Paisley in the 1990s—were influenced by his music, which wound up being one of the blueprints for modern country music.

Alongside such other West Coast performers as Merle Haggard, Tommy Collins, and Wynn Stewart, Buck defined what was then referred to as the ‘Bakersfield Sound’: a sharp, Telecaster-driven honky-tonk sound. As traditional Nashville-based singers like Jim Reeves, Ray Price and Eddy Arnold were heading in the countrypolitan direction, the no-frills, unadorned drive of the Bakersfield Sound, lacking any gimmickry, remained a reassuring beacon for hard-core country fans.

His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than twenty number one country records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. An indefatigable performer, Buck played a red, white and blue guitar with fireball fervour. He and his band the Buckaroos wore flashy rhinestone suits in an era when flash was as important to country music as fiddles. Among his biggest hits were Act Naturally, Together Again, I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail, Love’s Gonna Live Here, My Heart Skips a Beat, Think Of Me, Waitin’ In Your Welfare Line and Your Tender Loving Care. Rather surprisingly, Cryin’ Time, one of his best-known songs, was never a hit, being the b-side of I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail.


Buck Owens’ impact on country music was enormous not only in the performing area, but also in terms of songwriting and business. It’s been said that the mark of a great artist is the apparent ease with which they perform their craft. In country music, few have ever made it look easier than Buck Owens and his band, the Buckaroos. For more than half a century, he had infused country music with his aw-shucks humour, but behind the laughs, Buck Owens made a lasting impact on the country scene, with his no-frills, energetic, exuberant Bakersfield sound. He made some of the greatest, most exciting records in modern country music history. He was a genuine country legend, both as a performer and in his many other accomplishments. The biggest country star of the 1960s, Owens was a colossus, and should be remembered in the same breath as Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and Bob Wills.