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Uploaded on Dec 16, 2010
Buck Owens - Blue Christmas Lights
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, incorporating elements of rock and roll.
His signature style was based on simple story-lines, infectious choruses, a twangy electric guitar, an insistent rhythm supplied by a drum track placed forward in the mix, and high two-part harmonies featuring Owens and his guitarist Don Rich.[2]
Beginning in 1969, Owens co-hosted the TV series Hee Haw with Roy Clark. He left the cast in 1986. In 1974, the accidental death of Rich, his best friend, devastated him for years and abruptly halted his career until he performed with Dwight Yoakam in 1988. Owens died on March 25, 2006 shortly after performing at his Crystal Palace restaurant, club and museum in Bakersfield.
Owens is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
| Buck Owens | |
|---|---|
 Warner Brothers Records publicity photo |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. |
| Born | August 12, 1929 Sherman, Texas |
| Died | March 25, 2006 (aged 76) Bakersfield, California |
| Genres | Country, Bakersfield sound |
| Occupations | singer, bandleader, TV host |
| Instruments | vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1945–2006 |
| Labels | Capitol Records, Sundazed Records |
| Associated acts | The Buckaroos, Susan Raye, Rose Maddox, Dwight Yoakam, Roy Clark |
| Website | Owens' Web site |
Biography
Owens was born on a farm in Sherman, Texas, to Alvis Edgar Owens, Sr. and his wife, Maicie Azel Ellington.[3] Midway Mall, at 4800 Texoma Parkway, now sits where his father's farm once was. (U.S. Highway 82 through Sherman was named Buck Owens Freeway in his honor)."'Buck' was a donkey on the Owens farm," Rich Kienzle wrote in the biography About Buck.[4] "When Alvis Jr. was three or four years old, he walked into the house and announced that his name also was "Buck." That was fine with the family, and the boy's name was Buck from then on."[5]
He attended public school for grades 1–3 in Garland, Texas.[6]
His family moved to Mesa, Arizona, in 1937 during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.
Early career
Owens co-hosted a radio show called Buck and Britt in 1945. In the late 1940s he became a truck driver and drove through the San Joaquin Valley of California. He was impressed by Bakersfield, where he and his wife settled in 1951.[7]Soon, Owens was frequently traveling to Hollywood for session recording jobs at Capitol Records, playing backup for Tennessee Ernie Ford, Wanda Jackson, Tommy Collins, Tommy Duncan,[8] Sonny James, Del Reeves, Tommy Sands, Faron Young and Gene Vincent, and many others.[citation needed]
Owens recorded a rockabilly record called "Hot Dog" for the Pep label, using the pseudonym Corky Jones because he did not want the fact he recorded a rock n' roll tune to hurt his country music career.[9]
Sometime in the 1950s, he lived with his second wife and children in Fife Washington, where he sang with the Dusty Rhodes band.
Owens' career took off in 1959, when his song "Second Fiddle" hit No. 24 on the Billboard country chart. A few months later, "Under Your Spell Again" hit No. 4, and then "Above and Beyond" hit No. 3. On April 2, 1960 he performed the song on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee.
In the early 1960s, the countrypolitan sound was popular, with smooth, string-laden, pop-influenced styles used by Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, and Patsy Cline, among others. Owens went against the trend, using honky tonk hillbilly feel, mixed idiosyncratically with the Mexican polkas he had heard on border radio stations while growing up.[citation needed]
Owens was named the Most Promising Country and Western Singer of 1960 by Billboard.[10] In 1961, his top 10-charting duets with Rose Maddox earned them awards as vocal team of the year.[citation needed]
Source: Wikipedia
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