Customer Reviews

Country Pickin': The Don Rich Anthology

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Don Rich was the driving force behind Buck Owens, he did more than his share to make Buck the first and most successful Bakersfield singer. His guitar and fiddle playing and especially his harmony vocals with Buck actually made the Buckaroo sound. Tragic proof for this is the fact that Buck's career began to fade after Don's tragic death in 1974.

This beautiful compilation features the instrumentalist as well as the vocalist Don Rich and shows the incredible talent this man had. It is interesting to see the impact that Buck and Don had on modern Country Music, singers like Marty Stuart, Vince Gill, Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen, Mark Chesnutt and countless others freely admit that the Buckaroo sound heavily influenced their musical lives!

Great to have lots of the Don Rich solo recordings on one CD!

The recent death of Buck Owens prompted me to investigate some of his early work. I was familiar with 'Act Naturally' and '...Tiger By The Tail' - but that was it. Having not grown up around country music, my only image of Buck was his 'Hee-Haw' persona which, although fun, didn't lead me to believe that he had a career prior to the television show. Clearly, I needed an education (!)

One of the marvelous things about Amazon is the opportunity to quickly hear music snippets and 'discover' music you've never heard before. As a result of hearing some of Buck's great work from the '60's, I learned about the guitar and fiddle artistry of Don Rich. This CD is enjoyable for those who appreciate the great 'twangy' electric guitar, so evident in pop music of the late-50's to middle-60's. Rich's musicianship is pure fun and, as one devotee writes in the liner notes, 'he made country music cool.' Indeed, both Buck Owens and Don Rich seem to be the bridge between country music and rock n' roll from this time period.

This is a wonderful set of music; 'Buckaroo' and 'Orange Blossom Special' are worth the price of admission. It's a shame Don Rich left this earth so soon.

What a great musician! This album showcases the talent of the man I have idolized since the mid-1960's. I do have one problem with the album, however. Whoever selected the songs for inclusion on the CD overlooked some of Don's best material. I can think of four songs in particular: "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Cowboy Convention" (duet with Buddy Alan), and Don's fiddle arrangment of "Greensleeves." The CD would have been much better with these songs. I've given it a four-star rather than a five-star rating for this reason.

This CD showcases why Don Rich deserves and still receives the respect as the true musician he was. You will find not only some cool, clean guitar playing on here but a glimpse into why he was considered a top fiddle man as well. If you are a fan of the music Buck Owens was doing in the mid to late 60's, this is an album for you. Make no mistake, this is stripped down real country! From the fiddle tunes to the electric and acoustic driven songs to the vocal numbers, you can tell this guy was having fun with what he was doing. The liner notes alone are a testimony to what Don meant to the guitar playing community. The kind of stuff you will hear on this album is for me the reason why I play guitar!

A nice blend of fiddle and telecaster instrumentals plus several songs of Don's singing.If you like the Bakersfield sound,this is for you.

At the top of the pile, there's Don Rich. He has no peers and never will have peers. Here's a guitarist that not only provided the backdrop for the groundbreaking Buck Owens sound, but influenced every guitarist since (regardless of genre). Jerry Garcia and his "New Riders of the Purple Sage" offspring were nothing more than imitators of Don; Merle Haggard could have owned the Bakersfield sound if he had hired Don (instead of Buck's wife). Not only was Don the pioneer of the Telecaster, he could sing the hell out of a song. There are 24 songs on this disc, and as cheap as I am, I will go so far to say that this CD is well worth a 2 Cd-set price. The usual instrumentals are here, including the famous "Buckaroo" and the "Happy Go Lucky Guitar". Even more amazing, is the fact that Don was an expert Fiddler.....and his 4-string talent is shown here as well with "Orange Blossom Special", and "Cajun Fiddle". Vocal stand-outs include: "I'll be Swingin' To", "Out of My MInd", and "Love's Gonna Come a Knockin'". Some folks are born with too much talent, and that's obviously the case with Don Rich; the country music world lost a vocalist, songwriter, fiddler, and guitarist-supreme, the day Don Rich was killed. You need to get this album; I assure you, it will stay in your rotation. Criticisms????....well, I do believe his "Wham Bam (Thank You Ma'am)" from Buck's Tiger By a Tail album should've been included here. Regardless, this one gets an A++

For some people, music from Woodstock takes them back to the 1960's. For me, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos and Merle Haggard and the Strangers do the same thing.

There are cuts on this album I'd never heard before, but every track demonstrates Don Rich's impressive talents as a musician. I like his lead guitar the best, but his fiddle playing was spectacular. And his vocals are far better than he may have been given credit for.

I tend to like the instrumental tracks the best, but on "Lay It on the Line" you hear a great band at its best. The blend of Don Rich's vocals and the instrumental work of the Buckaroos makes you wish you could be in a honky tonk hearing them live.

We don't have Don Rich anymore, but I'm grateful for the great work he left behind.

This CD just blows me away. I already had a lot of respect for Don Rich before I got it, but now I'm firmly convinced that he is among the finest musicians this country has ever produced--any period, any genre.

First, there of course is Don's guitar work, which is utterly amazing. I don't think to this day anyone has actually done chicken pickin' better, and that alone makes him noteworthy. But he's much more than a one-trick pony on the guitar, as you'll soon find out when you get this CD.

Moreover, as others have already pointed out, his fiddle playing was just as good, and perhaps even better. There are quite a few cuts here that showcase Don's violin work, and even though that isn't what I got the CD to hear, I'm in awe of it. You will be too; trust me--he's that good!

This is already one of my favorite CDs. Sundazed did a great job putting this anthology together, and with 24 tracks--every one a quality tune spotlighting an amazing musician--it's easily a bargain at the full price.

I cut my teeth on the pure sixties and seventies country sound, and at thirty-one, I feel this ranks as one of my top album picks. Reason number one, if you're a fan of the "Buckersfield" sound, you hungered for a cd of Don Rich. Now, you have your wish. I highly recommend this. Whether you crank it in the car, relax with the headphones, or let it roll in the house, you will not be disappointed. Pop it in, and enjoy. Aside from the music, the jacket is a nice read, too.

Don Rich with the Buckaroos, defining the Bakersfield sound in partnership with Buck Owens. A great group, fine muscianship, along with the ability to breakthrough the genre and put Bakersfield on the map, musically. The tracks represented here are a variety, instrumental, Don Rich vocal, and some display of fiddle, which was Don Rich's first instrument. Having picked up guitar relatively late in life may seem like a feat of virtuosity, but the reality is that accomplishment on stringed instruments can be relatively quick, going from guitar to violin, in my mind would be more of a challenge than violin to guitar. The frets don't impede progress, they help out in the intonation department. But aside from that, Don Rich brought about a change in the genre', maybe from his perspective steeped in the violin, shaping the musical aspect in his mind and interpreting that onto the telecaster could have been a contributing factor in the freshness of the approach. But all in all it's just plain good ol' pickin', singin' and sawin' you won't be disappointed!