Dwight Recalls Last Talk with Buck Owens
2/20/2008 Dwight Yoakam helped rekindle the legend of Buck Owens when they recorded the duet “Streets of Bakersfield” 20 years ago. So it was only appropriate that after Buck's death in 2006, Dwight decided to do a tribute album. The idea grew rather naturally. Except for “Bakersfield,” Dwight had never done Buck's songs in concert, but felt his band should work up several of the Buckaroo classics for a couple weeks as a mini-tribute while he was on the road. “For my audience and those members of my audience that were fans of Buck's, we allowed them the opportunity to say goodbye with us,” Dwight tells CMA Closeup magazine. It was a particularly healing step for Dwight, who had had a four-hour conversation with Buck just days before he died. Buck had unveiled 10 bronze statues of major country stars at his Crystal Palace the previous summer, and he still had it in his mind to expand the honors. “He was talking about writing his memoirs,” Dwight recalls. “He was also talking about wanting to do more bronze statues for the Crystal Palace. He literally was talking the future, for the most part. I could never imagine four days later he would not be here.” Dwight Sings Buck features Dwight’s versions of such Buck Owens classics as “Act Naturally,” “Together Again” and “I've Got a Tiger by the Tail.” It was released last fall on the anniversary of the Crystal Palace's opening night. Dwight, who is GAC’s Artist of the Month for February, is among those who'll be inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame tomorrow (2/21).
