Buck Owens – Buckaroo

I remember watching Buck Owens and his red, white, and blue guitar on Hee Haw on Saturday nights. He wasn’t the musician that Roy Clark was…but who is? Owens had a great band and he was a really good musician to boot. This song is a cool instrumental. I want to thank Run-Sew-Read for suggesting this one. It’s probably my favorite song by Owens.

Buck Owens Guitar

And for those to whom this applies… Happy Labor Day!

In the 1950’s and 60’s Bakersfield California became an unlikely birthplace for a new sound…The Bakersfield Sound. Universally recognized as ‘The Country Music Capital of the West Coast’ and “Nashville West”, Bakersfield is the birthplace of what would become known worldwide as the Bakersfield Sound.

Who are some of the examples of this sound? Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Both artists cut their teeth at the bars and honkytonks around Bakersfield before gaining international success. Later on, Dwight Yoakam carried on this sound with outstanding results.

Buck’s genre of country music was different. It was the Bakersville style of country. He didn’t have that exaggerated Southern voice with tractor lyrics. Well in this song…he didn’t have a voice at all! It’s an instrumental from 1965 and you can hear the British invasion seeping in Buck’s country song.

Buck Owen’s guitar player was a man named Don Rich. He was an excellent guitar player and helped Buck become successful. Not only was he a great guitarist but he was Buck’s best friend also. He died tragically in a 1974 motorcycle accident after leaving the studio. Owens pleaded with Rich to stop riding it but Rich kept on. Buck Owens refused to talk about it until the late nineties. He said:  “He was like a brother, a son, and a best friend. Something I never said before, maybe I couldn’t, but I think my music life ended when he died. Oh yeah, I carried on and I existed, but the real joy and love, the real lightning and thunder is gone forever.”

This song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts and  #60 on the Billboard 100 in 1965. In the video below…Don Rich is on the left.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

39 thoughts on “Buck Owens – Buckaroo”

  1. Well, this is cool! Thanks for the shout out, and for featuring one of my all-time favorite songs. The story about Don Rich still makes me really sad. I can picture him standing next to Buck as they performed on TV. I love the 2nd video you posted, because of all of their suits. Someday I hope I get to make one of those. Btw, this song was featured in the movie Idiocracy. I can’t figure out how the makers of that movie came up with the idea to put this song with it.

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    1. I barely remember the Don Rich accident back then. I think it was a little after Stringbean…but it was big news in Nashville and yea I know Owens must have felt lost or defeated.
      You can hear a little Ventures in this one also…a very good combination of country and pop at the time.
      When I saw you suggestion…I thought…I have posted that before…I’ve had to…but I checked and haven’t.

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      1. The Stringbean murder was awful. I was a kid, and couldn’t imagine someone being that evil and violent. I agree, there are a few spots with a Ventures or Shadows sound to it. I hadn’t thought about that before.

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      2. Within a few miles from me…one of the guys that murdered him was released from prison and lived with a brother. He has now since moved away…but it was horrible. I was 6 I believe…but it was like yesterday…people were so shocked back then because no one was desensitized as much as now.
        The steel guitar in the middle brings the country flavor in.

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  2. Great post and a great tune. My band used to play that and our lead guitar tore it up with his Tele. My grandfather moved his family to LA in 1936 as part of the Okie explosion even though they were from Fort Worth. My father learned to play fiddle from my grandfather who was a “campfire” fiddler. He was influenced by the country music coming out of Bakersfield on the radio. It seems the Okies that settled there brought their hillbilly music with them and it stuck. My dad formed a string band in LA when he was 13 or 14 and they played a few gigs in Bakersfield, which by then was the country music haven in CA. He went on to play western swing and jazz fiddle on the Ozark Jubilee with Red Foley, and then with Bob Wills and eventually with The Light Crust Doughboys, who he stayed with for over 50 years. Thanks to Bakersfield that spurred him on. Love me some Buck Owens and that hot Telecaster sound.

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    1. It was a big difference with this country and Nashville country…not as much “south” in it? I don’t know how else to describe it.
      That is a cool heritage to carry on and learn from Phil going back to 1936. That makes complete sense about the Okies settling there and bringing that music with them.
      Don Rich…the man could play for sure.

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      1. From what I’ve read on it the Bakersfield sound was a bit more sparse, less orchestrated, fewer production values. I often hear Nashville songs as over produced but if that’s the case why did so many artists from elsewhere want to record there. Some of the best music ever comes out of Nashville.

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      2. Nashville was also known as having some of the best musicians….I think that is why Dylan went there and yes…they could get a big sound.
        For what you just said is the reason I liked the Bakersfield sound…more stripped down and song driven.

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      3. Yes that describes it perfectly. I don’t know if they still have the Bakersfield section in The Country Music Hall of Fame /Museum (I think it’s called) in Nashville? Not sure if there was a great rivalry going on there?

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      4. You know…I don’t know either. What I’m going to do is ask my cousin and see if I can find out more history. He played in professional bands and has played with some huge names opening for bands like Alabama and others.
        At one time I hung out at my guitar techs place and I got to meet execs and studio musicians…unfortunatley he passed away a couple of years ago. Thats where I found out a lot of stuff about Nashville…like how hated Twain and Lange were…because they were outsiders.
        Anyway I want to ask him some questions…his dad made guitars for the huge stars back in the 50s and 60s.
        Sorry to get sidetracked in my own comment Randy lol. Thinking out loud I guess.

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      6. I guess, in a stretch, we could call it the “Oki- field” sound. I believe Buck and Don were some of the first to bring the Tele sound to country. Nashville used Gretsch Country Gentlemen and Gibson guitars, not the biting twang that you get with a Tele and Fender amp. Seems everyone in Nashville copied whatever Chet Atkins, Hank Garland and Grady Martin did. Grady’s twin neck guitar was custom made by his design. Bottom neck was a regular six and top was an electric mandolin. I think your description of “not as much south,” is perfect. The Bakersfield sound was much more driving and raw. The Wagoneer’s out of Austin have the same sound.

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      7. When they did bring the Tele sound…it was there to stay. I still think of a Telecaster as a country guitar primarily because of the twangy tone you can get.
        I just looked that double neck guitar up…really cool looking.

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      8. Yep, Grady designed it and some luthier in Nashville built it. Grady and my father were good friends and played on the Ozark Jubilee together as well as some studio work in Nashville. Grady was one of the hot studio guitarist, sort of like the Wrecking Crew. Look up the video for Red Foleys ” Birmingham Bounce” on YouTube. Grady is on his double neck and my father is next to him on fiddle.

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      9. Cool video Phil…there is a little rockabilly thrown in there. I didn’t expect that. Great musicians.

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      11. I have a tele…a JD Donahue model with a 5 selection toggle switch. I like it but I would rather have an SG.

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  5. That’s a great song I have not listened to in ages, I really like Buck but never listened to his instrumentals. Thanks for the story about Don Rich, something I didn’t know the full story on. John and I just had an exchange about his post on Susan Raye yesterday.

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    1. I can’t believe I’ve never posted this before…this is the song I think of when I think of Buck Owens…this and Tiger by the Tail.
      I just told run sew read that I barely remember Don Rich dying. It was huge news in Nashville and I think it was around the time Stringbean was murdered so both were heavily on the news back then.
      I’ve read where all the ambition just went out of Owens when that happened and he ended up staying on Hee Haw for a long time.

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  6. Nice guitarwork! Oddly we were talking about Buck Owens a few days ago here. My sweetie’s dad used to love ‘Hee Haw’ apparently and she was saying she really liked Owens music on it. My dad liked it too, but my mom didn’t approve & never really let me watch.

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    1. Buck Owens was different from a lot of musicians on that show. Yea I always liked him and being a kid…that guitar drew me in also…I mean no one had a guitar like that…for a kid it was eye candy…and that got me to listen.

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  7. A song that must have sounded classic at first release, it sounds new yet familiar at the same time if that makes sense. And, yes ,a bit of of Brit invasion as a wee flourish.
    Yet another one transported to their Reward too early. If it wasn’t risky tiny aircraft it was big motorcycles, a la Bob Dylan dodging death on his Triumph. in ’66.

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    1. I wanted a motorcycle but the wife wouldn’t hear of it…so we “compromised” (translation she won) and we got a Jeep Wrangler that we can take the top off lol.
      It does have a mid sixties feel…it’s something the Ventures could have released.

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      1. Yes, I had a few middleweight Hondas, a sweeeeeet Benelli 250, but best of all Lady Luck riding on my side. With a bike, unfortunately, the crumple zone is you. Tell your wife ‘good call!’

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      2. I know you and her are right…but like cars I look at some of them like works of art….old tractors also!
        I was looking to get a 74-75 Honda…I love those.

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    1. It’s a good sound…you can tell they were influenced by The Ventures on this one… Dude…we were planning to go yesterday but something got in the way…it sucked! Sorry it took me so long to reply!

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  9. Max, I think you know how I feel about Buck Owens, Don Rich, and The Buckaroos. Love the clip where Jimmy Dean comes out and they talk a little. Didn’t know Merle was in the Bakersfield gang. I think Buck was real good at hiding his feelings in front of the camera.

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