More Buck Owens

Country music is big every where for white folks. That doesn't mean that African Americans can't make a dent in it. There is one, right now, trying to introduce Country to Rap. We'll see, but, I will remind myself right now, to write some about Charlie Pride, a great Country singer with a Great Sound.

When I was selling books in Kentucky and West Virginia, everybody was listening to Country Music, and believe me, Buck was big. I knocked on one door and the song, "The Race is On," another great Buck Owens Classic, was blaring. This cute, 15 year old teenager, had a mike hooked up to her parent's big stereo, and she was singing along. And she was good, too. She invited me in, and I sat and watched and heard sing. She had lots of songs she had memorized.

No, I don't remember her name, and it wasn't Dolly Parton. I think I am a year older than Dolly, and by that time, Dolly already had shows on many of the radio stations. And Dolly had been writing her own songs since she was 7 years old.

The "hay decade" for Buck's music was in the 60's. See if you can find out how many #1 hits he had, over those years. You'd think, with all of his success, Owens really didn't need anyone else to make his records, right? Wrong. Bucks lead guitarist and tenor singing, Don Rich, really set the standards in those days, with his high harmonies and his lead guitar licks. Great stuff. Bucks band was getting rich as well as he was. But get this, on all or almost all of his songs, Don, did not, DID NOT, sing the high harmony part. Well, then who did. Play a Buck song and listen to it closely. Doesn't the harmonizer sound like Buck himself. Yep, you're right. Don, did, though, play the Stratocaster Finder Guitar. I have always been told, that if you have a 1967 or before, Stratocaster Guitar, it's worth money. Your job is to verify or negate that statement.



Most of the Buckaneers bought motorcycles and road them to work. It scared Buck, and he asked them not to drive them to work. Just keep them on the off road business, because he couldn't afford to lose his band. He had nightmares about some of his great musicians ending up in a morgue, caused by a motorcycle accident.

Then on July 16, 1974, three worlds, Don's, his family's and Buck's, abruptly shattered. Finished working at Buck's Bakersfield studio, Don jumped on his motorcycle, en route to Morro Bay to meet Marlene and the boys for some deep sea fishing. He died after his bike hit a highway divider. Buck's son Michael, who managed Buck's Bakersfield radio station KUZZ, delivered the sad news to his Dad in an early morning phone call. It then fell to a devastated Buck to inform Marlene that her husband was gone. Don would have turned 33 in August.

Is it not odd, that one of Buck's big hits was about Oklahoma? Not at all. "Sweet Rosie Brown"

"I met a girl, from Oklahoma,
Down where the old Red River Flows."

I've got to add a bunch on Don Rich, because he deserves, and once you hear their music, you will understand why.