Happy Birthday To A Crowd Of Country Stars
Following the lead of the Continental Club in Austin, Texas, Schuba’s Tavern in Chicago is celebrating Buck Owens’ 66th birthday this month. In honoring Owens’ Aug. 12 birthday, the clubs are paying tribute to the country music that grew out of Bakersfield (once also known as “Buckersfield”), Calif., in the early ‘60s.
In the company of his great follower, Merle Haggard, and two predecessors, Tommy Collins and Wynn Stewart, Owens created the caution-to-the-wind Bakersfield musical style, which showed Nashville that country music could have more than “sound”; it could have attitude.
But a lot of other birthdays need celebrating, too, if roots music enthusiasts want to acknowledge people who were large contributors to country music’s glory days of the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s. For example:
Hank Williams, the most starcrossed and famous of all of country’s fabled singer-songwriters; Sept. 17.
Johnny Cash, country music’s Elvis Presley and the most charismatic country singer of them all; Feb. 26.
Patsy Cline, whose music could be the most timelessly palatable of any country singer, female or male; Sept. 8.
Haggard, whose subtly powerful writing and singing styles have had greater influence on the male country singers who came after him than anybody else, even George Jones; April 6.
Jones, whose voice set the emotional standard by which all who followed have to be judged (and usually are found wanting); Sept. 12.
Country fans might also celebrate the birthdays of lesser-known talents who haven’t received the credit they deserve. For instance:
Lefty Frizzell, the great stylist who so influenced Merle Haggard and, through Haggard, legions of today’s neo-traditionalists; March 31.
Roy Acuff, another great one, whose style lives on, influencing today’s generation through the music of George Jones; Sept. 15.
Don Gibson, whose huge vocal abilities, sadly, have been eclipsed by his reputation as the writer of such classic hits as “I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You” and “Sweet Dreams”; April 3.
Connie Smith, one of the finest country voices of either gender, whose songs no longer get radio play; Aug. 14.
David Allan Coe, the hugely gifted, self-styled outlaw who personified the term “alternative country” a decade or two before somebody coined it; Sept. 6.
Anyway, you get the idea. There are scores of country music birthdays deserving of celebration, so take your pick - but don’t choose too many in a single year if you plan on celebrating too enthusiastically.
In the meantime, happy birthday, Buck. And many more.
Twain sizzling on charts
Shania Twain is not only hot, she’s getting hotter.
Her single, “Any Man of Mine,” is riding atop the hit charts. And her second album, “The Woman in Me,” sold 89,000 copies in the last week for which figures were available, and 315,000 in the last month. All this, and she still is just putting a band together.
Not only has the Canadian-born Twain not supported the album with a tour yet, she isn’t scheduled to hit the road until February. Wonder what it’ll sell then?