My Heart Skips a Beat for Dwight Sings Buck
I love Buck Owens. I love Bonnie Owens. I love Merle Haggard. I love Dwight Yoakam. Most of all, I love the sound that is the Bakersfield country song, and GOD BLESS Dwight for putting out this record called Dwight Sings Buck. It’s gonna allow a lot of his fans who don’t know Buck Owens’ music to learn and appreciate what influenced the sound that Dwight’s fans have grown to love.
I listened to an interview on XM the other day with Dwight talking about how he met Buck and how he became like a father figure to him. He talked about Bonnie Owens’ harmonies on that old Bakersfield sound and how it instituted some of the sounds we are all familiar with today. Bonnie was an artist in her own right in addition to singing with the likes of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens (she married both). She was named Female Vocalist of the Year in 1965 by the Academy Of Country Music, the same year Bonnie ended up marrying The Hag. From that year on, Bonnie dedicated her time to Merle’s children and his career, touring with Merle’s band The Strangers as a backup vocalist. After 13 years of marriage, they divorced, but she continued singing with his band. With her passing last April, the country music industry lost a real one of the greats.
Dwight’s sound is so innovative and country chic, that hipsters and rockers and country fans alike dig his sound. To me, he is his generation’s answer to George Jones‘ song, “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes.” He is a modern-day living legend and will be around for a long time. He never took a second glance at changing his sound. He just did what he did and is still doing that. He’s updated it a little, but it’s still “Dwight” no matter which way you cut it. Please take a second to go download this brilliant CD. You will see that real country still lives!
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Rick says:
I had the pleasure of seeing Buck perform live at his Crystal Palace back on September 30th, 2005. I had driven up from LA to the spot where James Dean cashed in his chips in his Porsche 550 Spyder exactly 50 years before to the day and stopped in Bakersfield on the way home. Buck’s speech was a bit slurred but he sang and played up a storm and had to be literally talked off the stage by an attractive young female associate. Something Sunny would appreciate is that night out of the blue Buck decided he wanted to sing the Kitty Wells’ song “Honky Tonk Angels” as that song was also celebrating its 50th anniversary. Although the Buckaroos were not expecting that one, they all did a fine job and Buck was obviously enjoying himself.
Since Buck passed away in 2006 I decided to attend the New Year’s eve celebration on 12/31/06 at the Crystal Palace which was featuring both Dwight and Buck’s son Buddy Owens. Bonnie Owens was Buddy’s birth mother, so he had lost both of his famous singing parents in 2006. Since Merle Haggard had become Buddy’s step father, Buddy sang some songs written by Buck, Bonnie, and Merle. When Dwight came on he followed suit also covering songs from Buck, Bonnie, and Merle as they were Bakersfield sound classics. A bit of honky tonk heaven and a fitting tribute to Buck, Bonnie and their memories.
The two younger acts that have done the most to perpetuate Buck’s Bakersfield sound over the last couple of decades have been Dwight and The Derailers. Dwight was the first to release his tribute album, but The Derailers are working on one too. (It sure would be great if Tony Valenzuela came out of retirement to join them on that project.) On the Derailers’ album “Full Western Dress” is a haunting duet with Buck titled “Waltz of the Angels” that is guaranteed to give you goosebumps. One of my favorite SoCal honky tonkers Jann Browne was the first out of the chute though with her tribute album “Buckin’ Around”.
This music has a timeless quality that would still be embraced by mainstream country radio listeners today if they ever got the chance to hear it. Unfortunately Dwight has become old news and has been relegated to “Americana Artist” status by the radio programmers who would rather feature the latest pop-rock country artist of the week. What a pity younger mainstream country radio listeners won’t get to hear this wonderful and unique form of real country music…..
ANDREA WENZ says:
what a WONDERFUL ARTICLE!! and, alas sad but all so true….. noone can replace the old-timers, and what “they” say “everyone” wants played on the radio, most of it is junk {and i’m not that old!} after arguing relentlessly with the local clear channel owned station in mpls,mn to play 1st blame the vain, and most recently dwight sings buck, one dj finaly said, lady, my boss just won’t let me play it….. nice,eh? hopefully dwight will be around a LONG, LONG TIME!!!!! even if it is not on the radio!
SHEILA says:
HELLO TO YA,, I HAVE A QUESTION TO ASK FROM FRIENDS AND I,, WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ,,, WHERE DOES THE NUMBER #1 COUNTRY MUSIC OF THE CITY CAPITAL COME FROM IN OUR WORLD,,, IS IT IN THE SATAT OF TEXAS OR TENNESSE AND IS THERE SOME WHERE I CAN GO ON THE COMPUTER AND READ ABOUT THIS AND SHOW IT TO MY FRIENDS ,
Justin says:
I think Dwight Sings Buck is one of the more exciting projects any artist has done in the past year. “Close Down the Honky Tonks,” isn’t getting nearly enough play, but I’m glad the video outlets have played it as much as they have, and I’m glad there are some radio stations that play it. It’s exciting to hear it; it’s completely different than everything else on country mainstream right now.
About ten years ago, when I was in high school, I re-discovered my mom’s record collection. I found some original Johnny Cash, Elvis, and Ricky Nelson records (along with a first edition Meet the Beatles). My favorite one of them all is Buck’s Carnegie Hall concert. I’ll never understand why’s he’s overlooked so much.
Sheila says:
Just wanted to compliment “Rick” on his beautiful post. Just superb!.. If he is not a journalist, he should become one. I thorougly enjoyed reading his post. I posted it at Dwight’s Offical Website…it was so candid and beautiful. It truly deserves to be there.