"Live" At the White House (...And In Space)

While Bakersfield, California was his home and base of operations, Buck Owens was born in Texas, and it was a fellow Texan who asked him to play one of his most prestigious gigs when Lyndon Baines Johnson invited him Owens and his band to perform at the White House in the summer of 1968. Owens brought along a portable recording rig for the occasion, and "Live" At the White House is a scrappy, warts-and-all document of Buck's special show for LBJ, recorded straight to two-track, though truth to tell there aren't that many warts. Owens and his band the Buckaroos were one of the strongest live acts in country music in their heyday, and though Owens and company occasionally sound a bit nervous to be playing for the president (particularly bassist Doyle Holly, who briefly fumbles his vocal feature on "Streets of Laredo"), for the most part the musicians are tight and approach the material with plenty of fire, especially Don Rich, who delivers excellent guitar work and a roaring fiddle solo on "Orange Blossom Special." And if Owens leans a bit too hard on his comic relief during his brief set, you can tell he's thrilled to be playing for the president and the excitement is palpable. "Live" At the White House doesn't hold a candle to 1966's The Carnegie Hall Concert, but as a document of one special night in the life of Buck Owens, it's good fun and demonstrates just how strong Owens and his band were in their prime. [For the 2012 CD reissue of "Live" At the White House, Omnivore Recordings has included some remarkable bonus material — a 30-minute "live in the studio" performance Owens and the Buckaroos recorded for astronaut Charlie Duke that accompanied him to the moon on the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. By this time, Owens had added a horn section and female vocalist Susan Raye to the band, and this is a much slicker show than the White House performance, though there's still plenty of corn pone humor on display (some of which is slightly blue by the standards of the day, though pretty innocuous in the 21st century). Owens, Raye, and Rich are in fine fettle as usual, and since this performance was never before released to the public, it's of special interest to serious Buck Owens fans and a good match for the White House show. The Omnivore release also includes excellent liner notes, featuring new interviews with Buck's son Buddy Alan Owens and Charlie Duke.]