Buck Owens & His Buckaroos – Bridge Over Troubled Water / Ruby & Other Bluegrass Specials
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Posted On March 1, 2005
I tend to be an open-minded sort (I’ll answer the door without asking who it is), but I have to admit that I was nervous cracking the shrink-wrap on Buck Owens’ 1970 release Bridge Over Troubled Water, a collection of primarily “contemporary” pop/rock covers by songwriters such as Paul Simon, Donovan and Bob Dylan. As much as I love Buck, this album had the potential for either greatness or shameful embarrassment.
I’m happy to report it was the former. Somehow, Owens managed to seamlessly interweave his own compositions — “The Devil Made Me Do That”, “San Francisco Town”, “Everything Reminds Me You’re Gone” — with those of the avant-folk 1960s troubadours — Dylan’s “Love Minus Zero/No Limit”, Donovan’s “Catch The Wind”, and three Simon tunes, including an all-out baroque country take on “Homeward Bound”. Furthermore, he did so amidst a political and socio-cultural climate as divisive as what we are living in today.
In the original liner notes, Owens explains to his audience that these are all “country songs in disguise.” Though his experimentations may not be to the tastes of rigid country music fundamentalists, to my ears these recordings hold up beautifully after nearly 35 years. If only today’s country/pop crossover ilk could be half as imaginative and engaging.
As for Ruby & Other Bluegrass Specials (Owens’ 1971 follow-up to Bridge, both recorded at his then newly-built home studio), from the opening strains of “Corn Liquor” (the kickoff track, written by Buck’s son), it is immediately apparent that Owens & His Buckaroos are the undisputed godfathers of cowpunk. Adjectives such as “hot,” “amazing,” or “visionary” do little to describe the brazen spirit of this recording.
The frenetic energy of tracks such as “Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”, “Ole Slew Foot” and “Rocky Top” is elegantly counterbalanced by the restraint of midtempo numbers such as “I Know You’re Married, But I Love You Still”, “Uncle Pen” and “Ruby (Are You Mad)”. Even in such a traditional medium, Buck finds room for experimentation (check out the tack piano on “Salty Dog Blues”).
Both volumes feature excellent liner notes by music historian (and No Depression contributor) Rich Kienzle, and both serve to expand the parameters of what is usually considered the prime period of Owens’ career.
