Gary Buck

Artist: Gary Buck

LP: Gary Buck's Country Scene

Song: "Jeannie's Last Kiss"
[ listen ]

Here's another record I picked up in Snohomish last weekend; this particular track is in the vein of some of my favorite Marty Robbins tunes. Gary Buck was born in March of 1940 in Thessalon, Ontario, Canada and played semi-pro baseball before hitting home runs on the country music charts in the early 1960s. He was named Top Country Male Singer in 1964 and '65 by a Canadian music industry publication called RPM and was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001, just two years before his death in October of 2003. You can read more about Gary Buck in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada [here]. His "Gary Buck's Country Scene" LP was released in 1967; here are some notes from the back of the record:

When you think about it, the country scene takes in a lot of
territory: Southern songs, Western cowboy songs, folk songs
from the hills, brokenhearted love songs and laments, railroad
ballads, and a diversity of other songs are all classified as country
music. Many singers and entertainers specialize in one, or at
most two kinds, and build their reputations around these. Gary
Buck has shown from the start that he's big enough to stride
across the entire country landscape, with talent to spare.

Smooth, golden, warm, and mellow, Gary's voice can handle a
lament of a broken heart ("That's Why I Sing In a Honky Tonk"),
move right on into a romantic country love song ("I'll Be Watching
You"), tackle a hilariously humorous ditty, and then suddenly turn
to steel in a ballad about a no-good trifler-with-a-lady's-affections.
Gary has also revived a kind of song that's been too much neglected
of late, that is, the oldtime country ballad that tells a story. There
are two outstanding examples of these in this album: "Elrod," about
a little boy lost; and "Jeannie's Last Kiss," about a fateful mis-
understanding in a fatal love affair.

Gary picks his songs with care, often favoring the compositions
of the finest writers in the country field. Such great talents
as Bobby Bare, Neal Merritt, Harlan Howard and Ned Miller are
represented in this album. And still another fine songwriter is
represented also, with a new hit that has become a great
favorite with country listeners everywhere. The song is
"Stepping Out of the Picture," and the composer (who
also wrote the words) is none other than Gary Buck!