Buck Owens Steel Player Chronology

Jerry Brightman · Post by **Jerry Brightman** » 16 May 2006 8:20 am

Hello,

I was made aware of this thread, and until now decided not to post. However, several emails and phone calls have encouraged me to come forward with this information. As I landed at the Bakersfield airport for Buck's funeral, I realized that it had been 31 years since I left Bakersfield in 1975. Heck, that's half a lifetime, and I can't imagine how anyone would remember that far back...especially being absent from the steel community for almost 30 years and not being very visiable.

The following links will explain in detail answers to many of these questions:
http://slidestation.com/Buck/jerry's_bio_Buck_Years.htm
http://slidestation.com/Buck/Buck-Cuts.htm
http://slidestation.com/Buck/Buck_Owens_years.htm

Thanks to those who encouraged me to come forward and share this after all of these years.

Jerry Brightman
Buck Owens and The Buckaroo's 1972-1975

[This message was edited by Jerry Brightman on 16 May 2006 at 09:38 AM.]

Lawrence Lupkin · Post by **Lawrence Lupkin** » 16 May 2006 10:02 am

My thanks to Jerry and everyone else who took the time to reply.

Charles Curtis · Post by **Charles Curtis** » 16 May 2006 2:12 pm

I was told that Ralph did live shows with Buck; is there someone that can contact Ralph and ask him. A friend of mine in the military was talking to me about Ralph over 40 years ago. The first time I heard Ralph play, I was hooked. At that time I didn't know what a psg was, I had only played with a laptop. I'll bet Ralph got a lot of guys hooked on "that sound".

Fred Shannon · Post by **Fred Shannon** » 16 May 2006 10:45 pm

Charles, the info I have is that Moon played session only. I could certainly stand to be corrected. I know the Manness and Brightman era very well. While Jerry was with the band from early 1972 to 1975 I don't believe anyone but Jerry recorded with the band. That is how I understand it. Jerry has spent many hours going back and verifying what he has on his website. I guess one could certainly ask Moon about his time spent with the Budkaroos and he can straighten out the confusion if there is any. I know the Brightman info is correct, however.
Phred

------------------
"From Truth, Justice is Born"--Quanah Parker-1904

Charles Curtis · Post by **Charles Curtis** » 17 May 2006 6:37 am

Fred, if I remember correctly, my friend had been to one of Buck's shows and he may have met Ralph because he was describing him to me. He knew I was overwhelmed by Ralph's "sound". I wasn't aware of psg's and had never thought of mechanically changing the tension of the strings; hence I tried to change the tuning on my six-string lapsteel to no avail. The first psg I saw was when I went to an ET show and saw Buddy Emmons play one.

Charles Curtis · Post by **Charles Curtis** » 17 May 2006 2:06 pm

Sorry guys, I had looked past Terry's post and focused on the "session player" thing; got to pay closer attention. I'll bet there are some good stories that Ralph could tell when it took off.

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 21 May 2006 6:41 am

Oh, Mooney did play with Buck, but very infrequently.
In 1960 he worked with Wynn Stewart and Buck on a run of shows, he was Wynn's steel player at the time and they were sharing the band on the same billing.

This happened some, but not much. Wynn toured with Buck's show in 1968-69, Wynn's band backed everyone (at least on some of the '69 tours) except Buck Owens and The Buckaroos.
So yeah, you'd see Mooney on the same stage as Buck, but not much.. and never as an official Buckaroo.

Just went over a bunch of old emails, found Terry Christofferson mentioning his first starting with Buck in 1975, and to replace Jerry.
Jerry your first ever email to me mentioned you being a Buckaroo from 1971-76, however after that you never make a reference to it, so it must have been a typo.. everything else mentions 1972.

After '72, until he left in '75 I don't think anyone recorded with the Buckaroos aside from Jerry, on some other projects I believe Jerry and Jay Dee popped up on the Tony Booth Capitol LPs, I'm assuming that these were cut at Buck's studio and he licensed them to Capitol, which is what he was doing with his own, the Buckaroos, Susan Raye and Buddy Alan's material.

Of course Jerry is the man, this is his era I'm talking about, so he has final say and I'm just a spectator on anything he has to add.
By the way, I've noticed that Sundazed have finally cracked the 1970s with their Buck Owens reissue series, still pre-Jerry, if our luck holds out, there might be some more 70s reissues later this year.

Joe Shelby · Post by **Joe Shelby** » 21 May 2006 4:36 pm

I haven't heard all the '70's stuff, but would lean to saying that "In the Palm of Your Hand" is up towards the top of the list
of "in need of" a Sundazed reissue.
Jerry (Brightman) plays on the title cut, a
more up tempo revamp of the original with an
added chorus.
The rest of the album has Ralph Mooney on most everything else, and includes some early
Buck tunes ("There Goes My Love," "Sweethearts in Heaven") redone very
nicely.
Ralph's playing is consistently great throughout. You don't get the feeling that
they're pushing to recreate the '50's-'60's
feel--it just works really well the way it is. "Arms Full of Empty" was the single release from the album (I think it charted)
and Ralph gets down 'n means it.
I haven't heard the live '70's releases. I
think there's two of them (one, "Live in Melbourne," has Jerry Brightman, and he may
be on the second, as well).
I know Jason could educate us about these...

Joe.

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 25 May 2006 8:30 am

Hi Joe, yes there were actually a series of live albums from around 1974 that were only issued in the country where they were recorded.
I believe the Australian one was recorded at the Sydney Opera House, I've never seen or heard the album, although I have seen it listed. It may very well be live in my hometown, it has been a while since I checked that list.

Jerry Brightman · Post by **Jerry Brightman** » 27 May 2006 6:49 am

Jason and Joe,

These are the albums you speak of above:

ECP 93135 B Buck Owens Show In Japan 1974
ST23261 Buck Owens Live In New Zealand 1974
ST23372 Buck Owens Show "Live At The Sydney Opera House 1974

Jason, You are correct about an earlier email to you, it was a type o', and the correct dates are 1972-1975. I have provided a link for more information about this below:
http://www.slidestation.com/Buck/Buck_Owens_years.htm

Thanks,

Jerry http://www.slidestation.com [This message was edited by Jerry Brightman on 27 May 2006 at 08:07 AM.]

Joe Shelby · Post by **Joe Shelby** » 27 May 2006 11:43 pm

Jerry-
After going on your website, it's cleared up
a lot of confusion as to "who?" played with
who and on what. As many know, Buck had a large stable of artists, and I assumed that it was Jay Dee on a lot of that stuff.
It's interesting how you were able to alter your playing style according to the artist's
trademark steel sound...
Seeing you on Hee Haw in the early '70's, I
felt like you did carve out an original playing style, that was still very West Coast
sounding at the same time.
I asked other players "who is that guy?" and
nobody could tell me. Finally, I read an interview with Jay Dee some years ago where
he mentioned that you had worked with Buck. At that point things finally clicked.
Just wanna say hearing you back then was really inspiring.

Joe.

Charles Curtis · Post by **Charles Curtis** » 29 May 2006 5:42 am

I believe that Jay Dee Maness did an LP with Buck, titled, "Buck Owens In London". Anyone else remember that one?

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 29 May 2006 5:54 am

Charles, "Buck Owens In London" has recently been reissued on CD by Sundazed Records.

Hey Jerry, good to see you on the forum, all the best.

Jase

Charles Curtis · Post by **Charles Curtis** » 29 May 2006 6:57 am

Thanks Jason; I gotta have that one to listen to long time friend. That LP just won't fit in my CD player.

Jerry Brightman · Post by **Jerry Brightman** » 11 Jun 2006 6:36 am

Hello Joe, Jason, and others,

Thank you for your comments and I have added even more info and sound samples on my website.

It was also nice to see a picture of Bob Morris. He produced most of the recordings with Susan Raye and we had a great friendship.
http://www.slidestation.com

Jerry[This message was edited by Jerry Brightman on 11 June 2006 at 08:54 AM.]

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 12 Jun 2006 7:57 am

nice work Jerry

J.

Mike Headrick · Post by **Mike Headrick** » 12 Jun 2006 11:46 am

Ralph says he played three weeks with Buck in Vegas at the Showboat. Wynn's band backed up Buck for that time period in '59. He said he had a heck of a good time playing those dates and that the venue had just added (at Ralph's request) a big curtain that opened on the band before the artist came out. The curtain mechanism would stick and Wynn would have to kick it to get it to release.

That is the only time that Ralph remembers playing on stage with Buck.[This message was edited by Mike Headrick on 12 June 2006 at 02:16 PM.]