Buck Owens - Streets of Bakersfield (original)When I discovered...

Buck Owens - Streets of Bakersfield (original)

When I discovered Buck Owens and my life changed, I thought Country & Western music was one thing.

Nope.

Buck is Western music. The two are simpatico (my new favorite word), but not the same thing. Western music developed out of country, which was from the South. In West Texas, elements of swing were added, not to mention steel guitar for miles, and a brisk beat.

It migrated even further West and was perfected in Bakersfield, California, most notably by our hero, Buck Owens.

You will notice that even the sad songs in Western music aren’t all that sad, what with that brisk beat. It’s because they lived in the West rather than the South. How a happy song was ever written in the South I’ll never know. Perhaps heat exhaustion?

Me, I wouldn’t never go to any of these places because they are too hot. I live way up North, far away from these hellholes, and I am totally jonesing for some snow.

Just a month to go, about!