Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

Didn't Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens do a couple duet albums before Owens died?

How did Owens ever get the gig on Hee Haw since he was based in California, not Nashville? Trivial questions, I know, but the latter is a question I've always wondered about.

Sounds like I might have to pick up a copy of that.
 

Well, it mighta been taped in Nashville, but much of "Hee Haw's" creative center of gravity mighta been in Oklahoma.

Buck got a good start in OKC TV. Gailard Sartain is from Tulsa. Roy Clark lived in Tulsa for a long time. Plus, Bakersfield was known as "the biggest Oklahoma city" during the Dust Bowl because so many Okies went that way. Plus, Bakersfield sound being a reaction to the Nasville sound, there obviously were strong connections betwixt 'em.

One of my distant Rednecks, on Daddy's side, was a Bakersfield musician.

Oh, Dwight and Buck did do some work together -- "Streets of Bakersfield," for sure -- but I don't know if they did a whole album, though.
 

Buck's OJC connection, from the Buck Owens Web site:

in 1963 and 1964, with several guest spots on both ABC’s Jimmy Dean Show and NBC’s Kraft Music Hall. He first ventured into his own nationwide TV series in 1966. His friends Bud and Don Mathes, owners of Mathes Brothers Furniture in Oklahoma City, asked him to host a half-hour TV show. The show, to run 52 weeks a year, would be sponsored locally by Mathes. Buck saw an opportunity to expand his horizons by having the shows nationally syndicated, and at its peak, Buck Owens’ Ranch ran in 100 markets. Four times a year, Buck taped a dozen or more shows on a set he had built at WKY in Oklahoma City. During the first few years, the shows were performed live to tape—each segment between commercial breaks was done without stopping or editing! In later years Buck brought his son Mike in to help and they started editing the shows together after the songs were taped. Mike eventually became the show’s announcer, and Buck’s older son Buddy also performed on the show as “Buddy Alan.” Old and new fans alike will be delighted to see and hear Buck Owens and his Buckaroos perform the music that made him one of the biggest names in country music and the originator and father of the “Bakersfield Sound.”
 

You mentioned Gailrad Sartain before. Did you see him in Mississippi Burning or Fried Green Tomatoes? I knew his accent wasn't "southern", although he tried in the former to sound like someone from MS. It just didn't work, though.

I thought Roy Clark was from OK, but I guess I was wrong.

While those three weren't Nashville based, consider Minnie Pearl, Granpa Jones, Stringbean, Junior Samples - these folks were mainstays of the Grand Ol Opry - Pearl and Samples as comedians, Jones and Stringbean as musicians.

I think Grandpa Jones is one of the most over looked musicians of country music. I remember watching him stretch out on the banjo and just being amazed at what he could do.

Finally, I always liked Buck Owens' red, white, and blue guitar.
 

Roy Clark definitely IS from Oklahoma.
And it's Mathis.
I loved Granpa Jones, because he was real. If a string broke in a performance, he changed it on air and went right back into the song.
 

I went through Bakersfield this summer after not being there for a long time. It's more Oklahoma than any place in Oklahoma these days. It's always felt more like a vision of Oklahoma by Californians that have never been there than the real thing. However, the tumbleweeds and mountains are a bit off-putting. It really looks more like South Texas than Oklahoma to me.