The Steel Guitar Forum

Are the "Best of Ray Price" and Buck Owens the original recordings or have they been remastered by other musicians? I'd like to buy some Price and Owens CD's but don't know if the Greatest Hits CD's and The Best of Series would have the original steel on it.

Larry:

Price has a box set that covers his original recordings on Columbia through 1966. It's expensive.These are Ray's best years, in my opinion, with alot of Jimmy Day and Buddy Emmons featured. For my money, Bucks old Capitol albums from 1960-1967 re-issued by Sundazed are about the best around and they're inexpensive.

Try www.cdnow.com for more information on both artists and happy listening.

I think Gary has said it all, Sundazed might have some questionable ways with paying the original artists, but you know Buck would get himslef a good deal seeing as he was smart enough (and had enough leverage) to gain the rights to his recordings after he re-signed with Capitol.

On a side note: After Buck left Capitol in 1976 (or so), the label went around and deleted his whole catalogue except for the several volumes of Greatest Hits that they had on the market.

Another side note, Capitol Records have started a reissue program of artists like Glen Campbell and Merle Haggard's classic 1960s albums on Cd.
Sadly, they have chose no new sleeve notes, no session details, no extra tracks and have the cheek to call them classic reissues without any real recognition of what went into these releases.

When compared to he Sundazed re-issues on Buck's 1960s material, extra tracks, promo notes, the original sleeves and notes (which is all the Capitol re-issues have going for them), great new sleeve notes, session details and quotes from various sources who were there. Just a little effort from Capitol would be nice, and after finally doing a decent reissue of the Band's albums it's even more annoying.

I've had my annual rant. Thank-kew verrry much.

Hi Larry, I suggest that you are looking at www.bear-family.de which has the best box of Ray Price records you can ever get. Their box is a 10 CD´s (25 to 28 songs on each) one big book with information like studio, time, musicians and more. All songs are from Ray´s best time (if you like real country music) from 1950 to 1966. GREAT MUSIC! Janne Lindgren, Stockholm, Sweden