Owens Cohort Rich Gets Due On Anthology Project From Sundazed

Forever revered by Southern California country enthusiasts for his primary role in creating Buck Owens' trademark Bakersfield sound, guitarist Don Rich, who died in 1974, is the focus of a first-ever compilation documenting his many contributions to Owens' band the Buckaroos, which Rich led.

The 24-track "Country Pickin'—The Don Rich Anthology," due Dec. 5 from Sundazed Music, spotlights Rich's stellar silver-sparkle Telecaster guitar-playing, which was so central to Owens' recordings from the '60s as well as the Buckaroos' own albums. But the set also showcases Rich's equally outstanding songwriting, fiddling, harmony vocals, and occasional lead vocals.

"I sincerely believe that Don Rich was as much a part of the Buck Owens records as was Buck Owens," says Owens, who has also claimed in the past that Rich's fatal motorcycle accident essentially ended Owens' own musical life as well. "We had two relationships. One was like a father and son; the other was like brothers," Owens says. "In reference to this compilation, it's a fair and good and wonderful representation of who and what Don Rich was but still so far from being complete as to what he was.

"When I met Don he was 16, and I was 28," Owens continues. "He was with me for 16 years, and it was just uncanny. I've always said, if there's such a thing as reincarnation, we played music together back in another life. He could read my mind, and I could read his. We were on the same wavelength. Losing him, all the thunder and lightning went out of my music. It's never been the same since—all one has to do is listen to tell."

As Owens recalls, Rich was an exceptional fiddle player when they first met but knew "little or nothing about guitar." Rich soon became more enamored of Owens' own estimable Telecaster guitarwork, and as the two toured the country together initially as a duo, he not only learned to play the Telly "but superceded me completely," Owens says.

"I never saw anyone—before or after—with his wonderful gifts," adds Owens. "Maybe a guy like Vince Gill could play guitar or sing his parts, but play fiddle? And also he had that perpetual smile. I could absolutely, emphatically, unequivocally tell you I never met anyone who ever had a bad thing to say in 16 years about Don Rich. He was just one of those gifted guys, and people immediately liked him."

The close Owens/Rich relationship, notes Sundazed president Bob Irwin, was "one of those friendships that happens so easily and naturally that once it's forged, it's hard to imagine one without the other." Citing country music authority Rich Kienzle's liner notes, Irwin adds that Rich's instrumental mastery and bandleading savvy allowed Owens the freedom to truly step out as a front man.

"Don always preferred the role of consummate backup musician and bandleader," says Irwin. "But he had an awesome talent, which is further recognized in the heartfelt testimonials that we got from Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart, Chris Hillman, Pete Anderson, John Jorgenson, [fellow Buckaroo] Jim Shaw, and Buck."

Sundazed has been extensively and respectfully reissuing Owens' catalog over the last seven years. "It's been wildly successful and helped break us into mainstream retail," says Irwin, whose primarily archival/ reissue label is distributed independently worldwide, with Caroline East and West and Bayside handling the bulk of its domestic releases.

"We've always had a love affair with Buck's original albums, but we wanted to look deeper and always wanted to do a Don Rich anthology," notes Irwin. "Buck wanted it to be a showcase for all of Don's talents, from his wonderful and influential Telecaster playing to his fiddle play to his vocalizing and writing."

The anthology kicks off with the 1965 Buckaroos theme song "Buckaroo," which is "built around Don's signature Telly riff," says Irwin. Other key cuts include concert favorites that highlighted Rich, like "Orange Blossom Special," which features him on fiddle and, like "Buckaroo," is taken from the 1965 album "The Instrumental Hits Of Buck Owens & His Buckaroos."

"There are instrumental cuts from all the original Buckaroos albums, which the set mainly draws from," says Irwin. "But it really exposes the talents within his talent. If you focus on his Telly and electric playing, you realize how awesome his flat-picking is. So we included some acoustic flatpicking and nylon string guitar-playing, but everything is stamped with the unique Don Rich personality, whatever he's playing."

Sundazed will service "Country Pickin' " to country radio and college formats. "They've really embraced the Buck releases so far," says Irwin, who anticipates beneficial press response from the country, collectors', and fanzine publication sectors. There will probably be an online giveaway of some sort, he adds, and retailers will have a dedicated poster for the album and the label's simultaneously released complete version of the classic "Buck Owens & The Buckaroos Live At Carnegie Hall" album from 1966.

"Sundazed's Buck reissues in general have been so beautiful, and right now people are interested in and hungry for music from that era in country music," says Laura Cantrell, who hosts the "Radio Thrift Shop" weekly program at East Orange, N.J., free-form station WFMU and is herself a Diesel Only recording artist. "Don Rich, in Buck's mind, was obviously his equal and counterpart in that era and sound, and this anthology offers a great reference point, in addition to great music."

Rich's enduring legacy is reiterated by Owens and a more contemporary protégé, Dwight Yoakam. "Not a day goes by that somebody doesn't mention something about Don Rich," says Owens. "I average at least one E-mail a week about him—and that's amazing. He still lives in the hearts of a lot of people."

Notes Yoakam, whose debt to Owens and Rich has been so readily manifested in his music and the contributions of his guitarist/ producer Pete Anderson, "Don Rich's harmony-singing and guitar playing gave Buck Owens' music an artistic embrace that was inseparable from the Buckaroos and Buck's recordings and live performances. His fingerprint will forever be a uniquely lasting one on the sound of country music."