Buck Owens’ Apology
Talking to a friend last nite about Robert Plant’s and Allison Krauss’ stirring version of Doc and Rosa Lee Watson’s “My Long Journey.” The conversation moved into how much the acceptance of cross-over country has changed, on both sides of the fence, Country and pop-rock. Shania Twain seems to have blurred the line enough to get an awesome number of fans in both camps, tho’ hard-line Country-heads think she’s a complete sellout.
It jolted me back to 1966, when Buck Owens, the premier Country & Western singer of the ‘60’s, had a huge Country hit, “Looks Like I Got a Tiger By the Tail,” inadvertently cross over into pop-land and become number one on those charts, too. His fans resented it so much that he had to offer up a mea culpa and ask their forgiveness.
I remember it because I’d played rhythm guitar with him and his band for a week in Bakersfield, his home turf, that year, just before the brouhaha started.
BTW, his fans forgave him.
