Customer Reviews

In Japan

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

 

 

This 1967 live recording is the perfect complement to the band's better-known Carnegie Hall release of 1966. Not only is the band in top musical form, their presentation to a Japanese audience leans more towards songs than shtick. Not that the shtick is missing entirely (it was - and is to this day - an essential ingredient of the band's stage show), but the skits presented at the Carnegie Hall disc are replaced here with straight-ahead tunes.

What's especially remarkable about this concert is a song selection that introduces many new songs, including a few that appear nowhere else (or, at best, very obscurely) in the Buckaroos record catalog. Among the new tunes are "Adios, Farewell, Goodbye, Good Luck, So Long," "Open Up Your Heart," and a trio of instrumentals: "Fiddle Polka," "Steel Guitar Polka," and "Tokyo Polka." The Buckaroos also take on Cajun music with Bob Morris' "Fishin' on the Mississippi," with Owens' partner, Don Rich, taking the lead vocal.

As on the Carnegie disc, Owens and Rich sing harmonies with a magnetism that is supernatural. As polished as their duets are on disc, sung live makes daring is all the more evident. Accompanied by ringing telecasters (both Owens and Rich show off their ability to play stinging leads), Tom Brumley's twanging steel, and the solid bottom end of Wayne Wilson and Willie Cantu, these tracks are at once letter-perfect, yet swinging and free. The Buckaroos had a musical chemistry that few bands could ever match, and "In Japan!" captures the band's essence in all its glory.

Since the Beatles came to Japan, there is only a frantic craze in most of rock concerts. Meanwhile, classic music is still welcomed in a formal manner. I feel the fresh air when I hear this album. The Japanese MC introduced Buck and the Buckaroos in both of languages. Buck talked to the audience friendly and honestly and said "I love you" in Japanese. The Buckaroos played so well that the audience sent back a natural feeling. Today's lives in Japan are well prepared and formed, however, this kind of communication is rarely found in them. The ambassador of country music did great works in several countries. Obscure as country music is in Japan, this good feeling should be shared with more and more folks.

This was the second live album by Buck Owens, released just two albums after his first live album. It was recorded in Tokyo on February 6, 1967. The first live album featured several medleys of his songs; this album features no medleys, just complete songs. About half of the tunes here are new ones that Buck hadn't recorded before. Buck is the star here, of course, but each of the Buckaroos gets a solo spotlight, either singing a song or playing an instrumental. The instrumentals go over big with the Japanese crowd, by the way. This is a really entertaining concert that will appeal to Buck Owens fans.

The opening dialogue finds Buck Owens a little confused when he tells the Japanese M.C. interpreter,Ted, to translate one or two words to the live Japanese audience and so the m.c. speaks two or three sentences,in Japanese, then Buck responds by saying (did I say all that?) a slight pause and delay,and then there's spontaneous laughter. This could easily be one of the best country live albums ever recorded, if not the most entertaining and maybe a slight edge over Buck's Carnegie Hall concert,although the songlist on this Japan recording is not as strong as Carnegie Hall. Buck and the Buckeroos couldn't have asked for a more responsive audience than these Japanese people in the crowd that night,they loved their country music, as Buck loved them back,trying real hard to speak in Japanese and sing to please this enthusiastic crowd. This outstanding live concert showcases Buck and the Buckeroos at their very best music performances ever, highlighting Willie Cantu's drum solos on Tokyo Polka and Drum So Low, the audience loved it. If you've never heard Buck Owens and the Buckeroos, live, In Japan!, at a far away land, is the one for you.