Buck Owens Harmony Guitar

That guitar was on TV for decades in the weekly episodes of Hee-Haw. That show was a country version of Laugh-In mixed with a musical variety show. It is hard to imagine any American of a certain age never saw that guitar.

I confess, I thought the Red,White and Blue flat-top was a gimmick. It seemed as gaudy as an Evel Knievel outfit. I was wrong about most of that.

The paint was a message to the anti-American flag-burning of the political Left.

Not much was ever said about that. It was just on screen every week. Buck Owens licensed the guitar to Sears. Maybe that’s how he got the nick-name “Buck.” (actually his nick-name came early in life from a donkey named Buck)

What I really missed was the guitar we saw on TV was built by the legendary Semie Moseley, founder of Mosrite Guitars.

We saw a clownish character in a comedy show, but Buck Owens had 21 #1 hits on The Billboard Country Charts. That patriotic guitar was at the center of what was called “The Bakersfield sound.” That signature sound was a combination of Rock-N-Roll and honky-tonk. At the time, it ran counter to Nashville’s use of orchestra strings to beef up a recording.

In an interview, Dwight Yoakam defined the term "Bakersfield sound":

"Bakersfield" really is not exclusively limited to the town itself but encompasses the larger California country sound of the '40s, '50s and on into the '60s, and even the '70s, with the music of Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, the Burrito Brothers and the Eagles – they are all an extension of the "Bakersfield sound" and a byproduct of it. I've got a poster of Buck Owens performing at the Fillmore West in 1968 in Haight-Ashbury! What went on there led to there being a musical incarnation called country rock. I don't know if there would have been a John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival had there not been the California country music that's come to be known as the "Bakersfield sound"

The Mosrite Guitar Company was located in Bakersfield until Semie Moseley died.

We got to hold one that Buck Owens owned.

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