Kenny O "Kenny O" (Rhinestone Records, 1982-?) (LP)
(Produced by Joe Gibson & Jack Logan)
Not quite sure what to make of this one... Mr. O largely remains a mystery: he recorded parts of this album in Spokane, Washington and parts in Nashville, so I'd assume he was from Washington state, even though he gives a mailing address in Tennessee. This album is packed with originals, with all but two songs credited simply to "Kenny O," with one of the remaining tracks penned by Mack Sanders. The artist's full name, Kenny O. Smith, is given on the singles, though that still wasn't enough info to get the full story on this record. The backing musicians are not listed (sigh) contributing to the overall unknowability of the project. Clarification is welcome.

Charlie O'Bannon & The Western Twilighters "With Strings" (Music Mill Records, 1970-?) (LP)
(Produced by Mickey Moody & Clayton Patterson)
Latter-day Lone Star western swing with kind of a Hank Thompson-ish vibe. Bandleader Charlie O'Bannon (1939-2021) sang and played piano and organ, with backing from Bob Bazzell (steel guitar), Neil Berry (lead guitar), Kenneth Doyle (bass), Garry Downard (trumpet and saxophone), William Hill (drums and Buddy Wallace (fiddle and mandolin). Though this was recorded at Delta Studios in Fort Worth, Mr. O'Bannon was born and bred in nearby Mineral Wells, Texas, where he owned his own piano tuning business. He also released several singles on his own Twilite Records label, including "Search All The Honky Tonks" (which is also included on this album) as well as several songs that were not. O'Bannon and Bazzell seem to have written some of their material together, though i don't know if the guys in the Twilighters worked in other bands -- this album may have been their main musical legacy.

Curly O'Brien & The Top Hands "The Country Class Of Curly O'Brien" (Spar Records, 1969) (LP)
(Produced by George Sprague)
An odd custom pressing album that seems to have been a privately released souvenir album from Maine Hall Of Fame country singer and deejay Curly O'Brien -- ne Philip Nathan Boyce (1926-1990) -- who started his career in the 1940s, after de-mobbing from World War II. O'Brien performed throughout New England and eastern Canada, working with East Coast stars such as Dick Curless, Betty Cody and Hal Lone Pine, along with a career in radio and TV. This is a curiously amateur-sounding album -- despite the obvious talent of the band (particularly the steel player, Dave Farris) this seems like a slapdash production, which if you ask me gives it a lot of charm. Curly O'Brien handles most of the vocals, and he croons mightily in an Eddy Arnold/Ernie Ford kinda way, while gal bassist Jackie King has a great voice with kind of a Patsy Cline-meets-Maybelle Carter vibe. Lead guitarist Dave Dalton sings on a couple of tunes as well, as does Curly's younger brother Bob O'Brien, with the rest of the band rounded out by drummer Jim Murphy who held down the beat, but never got a solo. This album was recorded at the studios of WEMT-TV in Bangor, Maine, which may explain some of the rough production quality -- O'Brien and his band moved to WEMT in 1965 and continued on their airwaves at least through the end of the 1970s. The tracks here provide a strong echo of the early 1950s country scene, with hints of western swing and the early Nashville Sound; one track, "Tiny Soldiers," makes a last-minute reference to the war in Vietnam, though for the most part this is non-topical material. (Thanks to Some Local Loser for filling in a few blanks!)

Tim O'Brien -- see artist discography

Tommy O'Day "Up And Over Your Love" (Nu-Trayl Records, 1978) (LP)
Originally from Fresno, California, Tommy O'Day made a few inroads in Nashville, dating back to the 1960s and into the late '70s. Although he didn't make much headway as a chart artist -- his highest single pegged out at #82 -- he found some success as a songwriter and producer. This album's title track, "Up And Over Your Love," was released several different times, at least as far back as 1972... Interestingly, even though this was (I believe) his only full album, and it was released during O'Day's brief 1978-79 flirtation with the bigtime, none of the tracks on here were hits. Instead, O'Day found success with barely-countrified versions of safe, old pop hits such as "Memories Are Made Of This" and "Accentuate The Positive." Who knows? Maybe Emmylou Harris heard his version of "Mr. Sandman" and got the idea to record it herself... Anything's possible!

Doye O'Dell - see artist discography

James O'Gwynn - see artist discography

Sue Ann O'Neal "Presenting Sue Ann" (Eagle International, 1981-?) (LP)
(Produced by Keith O'Neal & Nat Stuckey)
A Branson singer does Nashville, with one of the early '80s stars of the Presley Mountain Music Jubilee making the trek to Tennessee to record at Gene Breeden Studios. It's a very glossy, Top Forty-oriented set, evoking (or perhaps anticipating) synth-friendly 'Eighties gals like The Judds or K. T. Oslin, with dips back to 'Seventies singers like Donna Fargo, perhaps, or maybe Crystal Gayle. The results are pretty variable: she had a good voice though the more modern and up-to-date she tries to sound, the less the reward, while a few (slightly) more back-to-basics songs frame her voice voice better. Not a great set for twang traditionalists, but a good example of an indie singer hovering on the edge of a Nashville career... No musician credits, alas, though Gene Breeden and his usual crew were probably involved; Nashville old-timer Nat Stuckey seems to have been O'Neal's temporary patron, and he helps close the album with a duet version of Lawrence Reynolds's "If God Is Dead," which Stuckey had recorded with Connie Smith about a decade earlier. This and the album's other gospel song, "Sinnin' Less And Lovin' Jesus More," point to O'Neal's roots in the Springfield, Missouri Baptist churches, and her future as an evangelical minister, including a stint with the Jim Bakker organization.

James O'Rafftery "Looking Up With James O'Rafftery And Pleasant Company" (Pyasaw Music Enterprises, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Corna Day & James O'Rafftery)
A curious early 'Eighties country-gospel set featuring a bunch of guys who spent a big chunk of the preceding decade playing country-rock gigs at bars like Ca's Corral and the Swizzle Stik, in Orange Country, California. Multi-instrumentalist James O'Rafferty (1940-2021) was a West Coast transplant, originally from Paducah, Kentucky who -- like many before him -- found studio work in LA and played live in various bands at night. He's joined here by drummer drummer Buddy Banks, Roy Dee (lead guitar), Karen Falkner (rhythm guitar), Tommie Gobel (bass), with James O'Rafferty credited on banjo and steel guitar. This album luxuriates in a bunch of country gospel oldies, classics like "Great Speckled Bird," "I'll Fly Away" and "Turn Your Radio On," as well as newer additions to the canon, like Kris Kristofferson's "One Day At A Time." There may also be some originals on here, though there are no composer credits so it's not totally clear. O'Rafferty later concentrated on playing steel guitar, and won a CMA award as an instrumentalist. I'm not sure, but I think this was his only album as a solo artist.

Mike O'Roark & The Freeborn Men - see artist discography

Dennis Michael O'Rourke "Broken Crystal" (Rhodes Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Tom Phillips-?)
A bit of a mystery disc What with all the saxophones, trombones, clarinets, dulcimers and flutes, this one looks a little bit iffy. Still, there's some fiddle, banjo and steel guitar in the mix as well, so there may be hope. Of particular interest, to fans of Celtic music, is some mandolin work by Robbie O'Connell, an Irish emigre who performed with the Clancy Brothers, and put out some fine trad-oriented material of his own.

Luanne Oakes "Luanne Oakes" (Live Oakes Music, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Luanne Oakes & Pete Nevin)
I suppose this is more of a taking-one-for-the-team/just a warning review, at least far as twangfan purists go... Yes, this album was recorded in Dallas, Texas and does have a strong country component, notably in the flowery pedal steel by Jackie Thomson and the banjo and fiddle fills by Tim Paschall, but the overall vibe is more of a late-1970s-style country-rock/pop set, with strong echoes of gals such as Karla Bonoff, Wendy Waldman and Linda Ronstadt. It depends on which tracks you tune into, really -- some are twangier than others, notably "Always Love You" and "Texas," where Ms. Oakes (1953-2011) looks back wistfully at her California days, but concludes it way cooler to live in a state like Texas where you can drink and drive without getting hassled about it. So, yeah, she's kind of a country gal. (Also, she later moved back to California, but it was nice while it lasted...) Her pop aspirations dominate the album, while the twang tunes seem more like a remnant of earlier days. 'Seventies soft-pop fans might really dig this one, though!

The Oakland Banjo Band "Banjos In Action" (Sierra Sound Laboratories, 1966) (LP)
Well, okay, maybe it's not really very "country," but it is super-obscure, so what the heck? Let's mention it here, too... why not? This Berkeley/Oakland ensemble was the banjo equivalent of the old mandolin orchestras of earlier decades, a group of dozens of banjo pickers from a wide range of ages, plunking in unison through a set of Tin Pan Alley and Antebellum oldies. The band was founded in 1958 and at the time of this recording (June 10, 1966) had a weekly gig at the Straw Hat Pizza Parlor, on Telegraph Avenue, on the Berkeley/Oakland border. I was kind of hoping, the album being from Berkeley in the 'Sixties and all, that it might include a few future luminaries of the Bay Area roots music scene, but it seems to have included mostly regular old civilians... no Jody Stecher wearing braces or Kate Wolf in knee socks here. But it's still a really charming record... The acoustics are only so-so -- you can't really differentiate any of the multiple banjos and there aren't any solos -- but the performances are extremely cheerful and robust. The musical director, Glenn Davis, clearly knew how to get people to enjoy what they were doing. Amazingly enough, the group stuck together for decades, and was still doing pizza parlor gigs well into the 21st Century -- similar bands were formed in San Jose (and elsewhere, I'd imagine!) Plinka-plink-plunk, indeed!!

Oakley Hill "Live From The Tomb" (American Pie Records, 1980) (LP)
These Alabama good ole boys cover Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, but also play a bunch of originals, like "She Washes Dishes," "Alabama Outlaws" and "Alabama Honky Tonk." Sounds good, don't it? Oh, and they also cover the Lost Gonzo Band's "Dead Armadillo," which is a doozy of an outlaw novelty song. This was a live album, recorded at Lee's Tomb in Tuscaloosa.

June Oakley "December 7, 1941" (Wild Hare Productions, 19--) (LP)
(Produced by Eddie Blakely)
A stern set of patriotic/historical songs, dedicated to the veterans of World War II... The repertoire includes oldies such as "Filipino Baby," "Ira Hayes," "Soldier's Last Letter" and "There's A Star Spangled Banner Flying Somewhere." This was recorded in Nashville with Pete Drake; the other musicians seem to be her own band or friends: Bill and Debbie Hullett (bass and guitar), Martin Parker (drums), Eddie Blakely (guitar) and Bill Kenner on mandolin. The album is dedicated to her father, who apparently fought in WWII, and to other American soldiers. There's no date, but it looks like an early-to-late '80s production, perhaps.

The Oaks Band "Super Hits" (ORB Records, 1973) (LP)
An almost-secular gospel album by a group that was the backup band for the Oak Ridge Boys in the early 1970s, just as they were making their transition from the Southern Gospel scene into the mainstream Top 40. The group included John Rich on steel and lead guitars, bassist Don Breland, drummer Mark Ellerbee -- and most notably, pianist Tony Brown, a top-tier gospel musician who would go on to play in Elvis Presley's TCB band (which overlapped with Emmylou Harris's Hot Band) and in the 1980s became one of Nashville's hottest and best producers. Although this looks like a cheapo best-of disc, it's actually a proper, early 'Seventies album.

The Oaks Band "Rockland Road" (Rockland Road Records, 1974) (LP)
(Produced by Jimbeaux Hinson & Skip Mitchell)
An even more secular-looking gospel set, with the same lineup, though Tony Brown's last album with the group. This disc features material by producer Jimbeaux Hinson, who also went on to a very successful career as a secular songwriter in Nashville, providing a string of songs for the Oak Ridge Boys and other artists, particularly during the '80s, most notably, "Fancy Free," which was a big hit in '81, and "Hillbilly Highway," for Steve Earle. Breland and Ellerbee took this album's title and used it for a band, Rockland Road, that recorded a more high-concept, out-there gospel rock record, Planet Time, which included tracks such as "Alpha And Omega" and "I Could Be Forever. (By the way thanks to this Oaks Band discography page which I just found while updating this album.)

Frank Oberschall "Good Old American Country Western Music" (Xaverus Records, 1976-?) (LP)
This is a truly weird record, with possibly an even weirder back story. First off, it is country. All the songs are classics: a half-dozen Hank Williams standards, a little Stephen Foster (the album opens with "Oh Suzannah"), a couple of western-themed pop songs from the big band era ("Deep In The Heart Of Texas," "South Of The Border") and, curiously, a version of the Civil War oldie, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," which closes the album out. It's not the repertoire that's so odd, but rather the delivery, as the singer, Ferenc (Franz Joseph) Oberschall (1929-2003) had a very, very thick Central European accent, which really didn't lend itself to the smooth mastery of American popular song. Obserschall was originally from Hungary and is best known as a Hollywood character actor, a guy who had a handful of bit roles, mainly typecast as one kind of German or Slavic stereotype after another. Probably his best-known appearance was when he played a KGB agent on a 1966 Mission Impossible episode called "Zubrovnik's Ghost." It turns out this role as an Eastern Bloc spy may have been an echo of his real life... Although his biography is obscure, part of his story was revealed in the records of Congress(!) when a 1958 joint resolution granted Mr. Oberschall permanent residence in the United States, in part for services rendered during the Cold War. Apparently he had left Hungary in 1946 and became a stateless person, then -- oddly -- was allowed to join the US Army after being detained in Panama in 1953, and subsequently trained as a paratrooper. He entered the US in 1955, following an honorable discharge, but faced deportation when his paperwork got flagged. A US congressman sponsored his application for permanent residence, as part of a joint resolution bill (HJR-635) at the end of which it was mentioned that "Mr. Oberschall's life would be endangered if he returned to Hungary because of the security type work he did for the United States." Very mysterious. Anyway, he also started his acting career around this time and clocked about a dozen film and TV appearances between 1957-67, then seems to have dropped off the map after that. There's no date on this album (the back cover is blank) but it sounds like a 1970s production to me -- Mr. Oberschall's clunky vocals are haphazardly backed by a chaotic electric guitarist, clearly a rocker and not a country picker, whose funky guitar tone sounds pretty post-hippie to me. At the very least it was recorded sometime after 1969, since his rendition of "Okie From Muskogee" is the album's uber-kitsch highlight, on just about the most "Dr. Demento"-worthy country album I've ever heard.

Lucky Oceans & The Asleep At The Wheel Revue "Lucky Steels The Wheel" (Blind Pig Records, 1982) (LP)
A nice solo album by Asleep At The Wheel's first steel player and co-founder Reuben "Lucky Oceans" Gosfield... It's a familiar mix of western-swing, swank, big-band-y R&B and instrumental tunes that spotlight his considerable skills as a pedal steel stylist. Texas fiddler Johnny Gimble adds some sweet licks as well, making this a mighty fine little record... Definitely worth tracking down!

Wild Bill (Ochsner) "Pickin' With My Friends" (Ripcord Records, 19--?) (LP)
(Produced by Blaine Allen, Gene Breeden & Ellis Miller)
Well... To put it diplomatically, Missoula, Montana's Wild Bill Ochsner is perhaps an acquired taste, one that I'm still working on. He was an ultra-local musician, with an ultra-local band, and that approach has its plusses and minuses... This album kicks off on a high note, with the bouncy title track, "Pickin' With My Friends," where Oschner and his entourage literally sing the praises of keeping things local: you don't have to move to Austin, LA or Nashville to get funky and twangy. But as the album progresses, things get rough. Ochsner himself can be an okay vocalist on uptempo numbers, though his slower ballads can be torture. Worse are the tracks where he lets his female co-singers take over... I think mostly it's Nikki Jean -- who also sings on his next album -- who is so hard on the ears. But, whatever. This record is all about the rural DIY vibe, and more than most, Ochsner keeps it real in the sense that he's willing to put it all out there, flubs, bum notes and all. He is a good songwriter, though -- some tunes could be edited down, but the bones are solid, particularly on novelty numbers such as "Hank, I Know Just How You Felt" and "Will You Play Proud Mary Again." I'd be hard pressed to actually recommend this album to anyone, but this guy was certainly a hometown hero, kind of a high plains Jerry Jeff Walker, at least I think that was the idea. Ripcord regular Gene Breeden was in the studio booth, though apparently not picking on the sessions themselves... The lead guitar is credited to Les Sneed, pedal steel to Roy Smith, with Gene Keyes on piano and Jim Finneran on harmonica... There was a lot of turnover from album to album, but this one seems to have really been all Montana locals.

Wild Bill (Ochsner) "Montana Power, v. 1" (Ripcord Records, 19--?) (LP)
(Produced by Wild Bill Ochsner)
Yikes. I mean, Oschner is an appealing character -- cheerful, engaged, full of creativity and a prolific songwriter... He's just not a very, um, consistent singer, and the arrangements on this album go a little overboard, particularly the string arrangements, which get a bit shrill. I dunno, I guess with repeated listening, this can grow on you, and I'm sure as a memento of his barroom days, this had a lot of appeal to local fans. But some of it can be quite painful, particularly tracks like "Why Should I Cry" and "Don't Call My Name," when he lets his female co-singer, Niki Jean, take the lead... She's not really star quality, and the backing musicians tend to go over the top while backing her because, well, why not? Pianist Gene Keyes, in particular, gets a little too cute and coy with his fills on these tracks. I don't want to sound mean, but in all honesty, this disc mainly falls into the "so-bad-it's-good" category of country kitsch, although I think the songs themselves are often pretty well-written.

Wild Bill (Ochsner) "The Future's In The Hands Of The Children" (Ripcord Records, 19--?) (LP)
Missoula, Montana's Wild Bill Ochsner recorded several albums for the ever-mysterious Ripcord label... Later in life he turned to the Lord and became an evangelical preacher (as well as an auction caller...) but here he's still working in a secular style. It's all original songs, with Gene Breeden playing guitar, and additional vocals by a gal called Niki Jean. The cover photo is of a kids' martial arts class, where Oscher was presumably an instructor, while the back cover shows Ochsner at various local businesses: The Memory Banke record store, Ron's Auto Refinishers, the Grizzly Fence store... You can't get more local than that!

Wild Bill (Ochsner) "Montana Power, v. 2" (Ripcord Records, 19--?)
(Produced by Wild Bill Ochsner)

Kevin Odegard "Kevin Odegard" (Wooff Records, 1971) (LP)
(Produced by Tom Jung, Don Kingsley & David Zimmerman)
A Minnesota folk-rock guy who caught the ear of the great Bob Dylan and was invited to play on the fabled Blood On The Tracks album. Respect.

Kevin Odegard "Silver Lining" (ASI Records, 1975) (LP)
(Produced by Scott Rivard)

Peat Oden "The Country Gentleman -- By Request" (Poco Records, 19--?) (LP)
(Produced by Peat Oden)
Throughout the 1970s, Oregon country crooner and radio deejay Charles "Peat" Oden (1929-2017) an old-timer who played local shows around the North Bend/Coos Bay area... He recorded at least one single as early as 1971 ("Shootin' The Bull/Headin' Home" on Pampa Records, a label in Bakersfield) as well as this album, released sometime later in the decade. I couldn't find much info about him, though -- he wrote some of his own material, but mainly played cover songs, and was also, I believe, an enthusiast of historical railroad preservation... This album is mostly cover songs, including a duet version of "Jackson," sung with a gal named Charlotte Diane Oden, who I think was his daughter. Also included are a couple of his own originals, "Layin' Em Down" and "Wandering,"which fit in nicely with his covers of oldies like "Six Days On The Road" and "White Lightning" (an album highlight) as well as a slew of newer tunes, such as "Easy Lovin'," "Green Green Grass Of Home," "Me And Bobbie McGee," "Proud Mary" and "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town." In all honesty, the performances are a little shaky, but sincere as can be... a good snapshot of an unpretentious, middle-aged local country singer having fun with a few favorite songs. [Also worth noting: the liner notes were written by fellow country singer Tide Carwright, who played bass in Oden's band, The Country Gentlemen, back in the late 1960s; he mentions that Mr. Oden was also a radio station music director, but doesn't say where..]

Oganookie "Oganookie: 1970-1973 -- Santa Cruz, California" (DSW Records, 1973) (LP)
(Produced by Oganookie)
A really cool album from the deepest days of California hippiedom... This freeform-friendly Bay Area band was based in a teenie town called Brookdale, up in the wild backwoods of Santa Cruz, CA... Apparently they were part of a commune called the Oganookie Farm (immortalized here in the song, "Oganookie Farm Song.") The band played around regionally along the Central Coast and in the Central Valley for several years. This album is mostly from a live recording they did at two long-defunct venues, the O. C. Inn and Chateau Liberte, and though the original sound quality from the board is pretty bad, the music is great, and it's a priceless document of the times. This is real, authentic 'Seventies stuff -- what mellow, talented hippie bands sounded like, in their headband-wearing, fringe-leather, shaggy beard world. Side One of the album is more country-oriented, with an acoustic swing feel that's very reminiscent of Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks -- fiddler Bob Stern is the showcase player on several songs, including squeaky renditions of "Uncle Pen" and "Orange Blossom Special." On Side Two they delve more into the rock and roots sounds of the era, notably on "Blues Ain't Nothin' But A Bad Dream," which sounds a lot like The Band, and the longer, spacier "Song For A Child," which is very Dreadful Grate-ish. One track was recorded in a studio, "Your Woman Is Ugly," one of several original compositions by John C. Bowers, who I'm guessing was the band's lead vocalist. I'm sure the other guys in this band played music elsewhere, but the only guy I know about for sure is bassist/banjo picker George Stavis, who recorded an influential album of avant-garde banjo music a few years earlier on the Vanguard label. If you're looking for authentic, vintage hippie music that doesn't suck, try and track this one down. [Update: George Stavis sent this compilation of old video on the band, recently posted on YouTube which really gives a sense of their creativity and range. Thanks!]

The Ogeechee Outlaws "...Featuring Outlaw Man" (Rene Records, 1975-?) (LP)
A '70s indie-twang band from Savannah, Georgia, led by Butch Ricker, the Outlaws were originally formed in 1974 by Ricker and his brothers, Kenny and Mike, along with lead guitarist R. J. Bielfeldt... Mostly, if not all, cover songs, including tunes such as "Already Gone," "Ridin' My Thumb To Mexico" and "Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life." Not sure how they wound up recording for a label in Nebraska, but I'm sure it's a good story.

James Oglesby "Love Is Just A Legend" (United Steel Records, 1978)
(Produced by Doug Jernigan & James Oglesby)
A great set of twangy, boozy, sincere, real-deal country from Pensacola, Florida... All the songs are written by James Oglesby, a strictly-local musician who was in the background of the Florida country scene, and was a longtime friend of picker Doug Jernigan, who became one of the preeminent steel players of the '70s. Jernigan produced this album and adds lots of sweet licks and twang, perfect accompaniment for this jovial set of irony-laced honkytonk tunes. There are some great weepers, novelty numbers and cheating songs, including "My First Shot At Nashville" and "Full Time Lover, Part Time Wife" and "Country Picker's Life." The only real sour note comes with "The City Life," which is kind of a redneck-twang equivalent of Grandmaster Flash's "The Message," which a farm boy confronting life in the dirty, noisome big city. It unfortunately includes traces of homophobia, anti-Semitism and sexism that are not present in the rest of the record -- not sure if Oglesby was just assuming the role of a character for this song, but it does prove a bit jarring. Otherwise, a pretty cool record -- Oglesby wasn't a super-disciplined craftsman of song, but he had some good songs in him, and a distinctive voice... Kind of reminds me of Dick Feller.

Oily Rags "Oily Rags" (RCA/Signature Records, 1974) (LP)
(Produced by Chas Hodges & Dave Peacock)
Funky roots music, UK style. Oily Rags featured bassist Dave Peacock and pianist Chas Hodges, who later recorded as the duo of Chas & Dave -- Hodges had previously been in the English rock band Heads Hands & Feet, with hotshot guitarist Albert Lee. (This album's opening track, "Come Up And See Me Anytime," resurfaced on Lee's 1979 album, Hiding, a nod towards his old pals...) This is a fun, bluesy, laid-back set, mixing original songs with tasty cover tunes such as "Time To Kill" by the Band, Lee Dorsey's "Holy Cow," Kris Kristofferson's "Jody And The Kid," and even the English music hall oldie, "Boiled Beef And Carrots," an anti-vegetarian anthem proclaiming the virtues of a traditional working-class diet. This entry hinted at the direction Chas & Dave would take with their funky, relaxed "rockney" style of pub rock blues, mixing Cockney humor with an American rural vibe. Before the Heads Hands band broke up in 1973, Hodges and other members had backed countrybilly legend Jerry Lee Lewis on a UK session, and Jerry Lee's signature sound often creeps into his piano style, as well as some richly authentic country touches... These guys really "got" American roots music, and played it to perfection, crafting a first album that was both subtle and stunning. Highly recommended!

Oklahoma "Oklahoma" (Capitol Records, 1976) (LP)
(Produced by Mark Lindsay & Terry Melcher)
This one's more in the consider-yourself-warned department... Despite the promisingly rural band name, these Midwesterners were a pure '70s rock band, basically a generic electric guitar-keyboards-drum outfit, with glimmers of glam, bubblegum, Southern rock and a teeny, tiny trace of country-rock twang. They were surprisingly competent, but in a REO Speedwagon/Styx-ish kind of way, not in any kind of rough-and-ready bar-band style. Nothing on here to keep track of, really, at least from a twangfan's perspective.

The Oklahoma Sundowners "I Heard The Bluebirds Sing" (197-?) (LP)
(Produced by The Fremen Family & Carl White)
Not sure of the date on this one -- it looks like it's a mid- to late '70s record, but it could be early '80s as well... Fabulously unpretentious Sooner bluegrass and stringband twang played by a family band from Canadian, Oklahoma, featuring Mona Fremen (bass), Rhonda Fremen (banjo), Margie Fremen (auto harp) and Tommie Fremen on guitar, joined by fiddler Carl White, of nearby Indianola, OK. The vocals are by the gals, with lead vocals by Margie Fremen (who I was believe was the mom) and Mona Fremen, with (sister?) Rhonda Fremen adding plangent harmonies. It's mostly gospel material, with some fiddle tunes and whatnot in the mix. Anyway, this has a delightfully amateurish feel -- super rural, deeply committed, ultra-authentic, with thick southern/Okie accents and a slightly plodding tempo. The songs are all old-fashioned, sentimental hillbilly material, echoing the Louvin Brothers and older country gospel artists in that same vein of unapologetic heartfelt rural twang. Great stuff, really.

The Oklahoma Thunder Band "Oklahoma Thunder" (Flying High Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Slim Richey & Paul Motter)
A lively, eclectic late-'Seventies Tulsa band that made an earlier EP in 1978, these guys backed nightclub owner Mickey Crocker at his live shows, then became the house band at Cain's Ballroom around the time they cut this album. This edition of the short-lived group featured core members Jerry Cartwright, Mark Fuller, Gary Humphrey, David Matthews, Larry Megill and Lynn Murray, with Murray contributing four original songs, while the band splits credit on one song, "City Life," and Mark Fuller has sole credit on three others. The remaining two tracks are covers, one of Bill Caswell's "Sugar Mama," and a version of the old Bob Wills hit, "Roly Poly."

The Old Americans "Dream Of Yesterday" (Green Thumb/QCA-Queen City Album, Inc., 1980-?) (LP)
Great squeaky-fiddle stuff by an elderly trio of folk preservationists out of Stone County, Arkansas. These duffers include guitar picker Seth Mize and brothers David and Willie Morrison, both fiddlers, and all three "well over 60," according to the liner notes. They made a lot of appearances out of state, largely because of their profile as poster children for Senator Ted Kennedy's "green thumb" initiative, which employed older Arkansans on highway beautification projects and the like. Anyway, the music is great, if you're into the old-timey style. On a few tunes Mize plays a little out of tune: I actually think it sounds cool, adding a non-Western drone effect to the record. Recommended!

Old And In The Way "Old And In The Way" (Round Records, 1975) (LP)
An iconic album for early '70s bluegrass fans, and a big bridge from the world of acidhead hippies into the traditional folk scene. The gathering of David Grisman, Peter Rowan, old-time fiddle whiz Vassar Clements and the Grateful Dead's teddybear avatar, Jerry Garcia was news in and of itself -- the cover art by underground cartoonist Greg Irons was just icing on the cake, giving this disc ultimate counterculture status. The band itself wasn't together that long, and was a pretty informal gig to begin with. They were, as the saying goes, ragged but right -- a little haphazard when compared to the classic recordings of the bluegrass elders, but full of the right attitude. In some ways, it's actually kinda nice how loosey-goosey Old & In The Way were -- their relaxed, easygoing approach was a folk scene equivalent of the DIY punk explosion in rock. Doubtless many hundreds of fledgling pickers were encouraged to pick up an instrument after hearing this disc. Fun stuff, with nice versions of a couple of Rowan's best tunes, "Midnight Moonlight," and "Panama Red..."

Old And In The Way "That High Lonesone Sound" (Acoustic Disc, 1996)
Old And In The Way "Breakdown" (Acoustic Disc, 1997)
We're lucky that David Grisman is such a magpie... Poking around in his closets he came up with the material for these two excellent archival collections, which give a perfect, bird's eye view of Old & In The Way live and in action, during their all-too-brief prime. It's a shame the band wasn't able to stay together longer, just to see how much they would have tightened (or changed) their sound... But since Rowan and Grisman both went on to do some of the best work of their careers immediately after this, I guess we can't really be all that bummed. There's certainly little to complain about here... Again, the band is ragged but right; they may have been a little sloppy, but the music is still exciting. Recommended!

Old And In The Gray "Old And In The Gray" (Acoustic Disc, 2002)
A swell get-together of some of David Grisman's grizzled, goofy bluegrass buddies. The lineup includes Grisman, Peter Rowan, Vassar Clements and Herb Pedersen, along with young'un Bryn Bright. who plays a mighty fine bass. The vibe here is playful and relaxed, running through some old favorites and crowd pleasers... Highlights include the album opener, "Good Old Boys" and the spine-tingling story-song, "The Flood," which details a river rising and a community rallying to meet the crisis. If you enjoyed Grisman's Retrograss album from a few years earlier, then you oughta love this one, too!

Old Friends "Old Friends" (Outlet Records, 1984) (LP)
(Produced by Ronnie Freeland & Old Friends)
A bluegrass-country hybrid band from Alexandria, Virginia... The group included Roland Ash on mandolin, Carl Fanning (banjo and pedal steel), Jeff Harding (dobro), Johnny Messenger (lead vocals and guitar), Pat Petteway (piano), and Fred Smith on bass. These guys were one of those banjo-meets-pedal steel kinda groups, with dips into oldies such as "Singin' The Blues" and "Yes She Do, No She Don't," as well as newer stuff by Dan Hicks and a version of James Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes," featuring pianist Petteway on lead vocals. There are also several original tunes, mostly penned by Fanning and Messenger. Dunno much about these guys; they played together in various configurations for years before forming this band and played the Washington, DC music scene for a while before recording this, their first album.

Old Glory "Old Glory Inside" (Huck Finn's Records, 1976) (LP)
(Produced by Jeff Aronson & Mike Kicenski)
Not a ton of info about this SoCal band from Santa Ana, California which included lead singer and pianist Valerie Ford, along with Jeff Aronson (bass), Mike Berry (bass), Ron Eglit (lead guitar and pedal steel), John Penn (banjo, dobro and guitar), and Steve Spurgin on drums. It's an all-original set, with most of the songs written by John Penn, and a couple more credited to Steve Spurgin. Nice, mellow, relaxed folkie-eclectic stuff, definitely worth a spin!

Old Hat Band "Concert" (Voyager Recordings, 1977) (LP)

Old Salt "Old Salt" (PTO Records, 1976) (LP)
(Produced by Peter Tinsley, Les Tyler & Marty Imm)

The Old Scratch Band "Old Time String Band Music" (California Condor Records, 1974) (LP)

Bill Oliver "Texas Oasis: Environmental Songs For Texas And The World" (Live Oak Records, 1982) (LP)
(Produced by Bill Oliver)
More of a folkie thing, perhaps, though it's got Texas in the title... This musical eco extravaganza includes tunes like "If Cans Were Nickels" "Talking To Trees," "Shopping Maul" and one directed at the Reagan cabinet, "James Watt Won't Do." Among the artists backing Oliver's vision were fiddler Champ Hood (of Uncle Walt's Band), guitarist Don Sanders, Bobby Bridger, and several other people in the orbit of the Kerrville Folk Festival. This was mostly recorded in Austin, with some tracks produced in Berkeley, California (naturally!)

Jim Oliver "Volume One" (Arcam Enterprises, 1979-?) (LP)
(Produced by Jene Miller & Jim Oliver)
A strictly solo album by Nashville sideman and aspiring songwriter Jim Oliver, who played all the instruments and was the love musician on this privately-released set... At the time his main patron/collaborator seems to have been Billy Swan, who recorded a couple of Oliver's songs, circa 1977-78, and who contributes a brief blurb to the liner notes; both of the songs, "The Morning Girl" and "Oliver Swan," are included here in Oliver's own stripped-down versions. Most of this album is made up of cover tunes, though, including songs from the likes of Merle Haggard and Billy Ed Wheeler, as well as several soft-pop classics such as "Danny's Song," "Feelings," David Gates' "If," and Bonnie Tyler's 1977 hit, "It's A Heartache." No info about where Oliver was from originally, though there was a Jim Oliver who had recorded a country single in Aspen, Colorado, and it does seem likely it was the same guy.

Jim Oliver "City Slickin' And Back Porch Pickin' " (Prairie Dust Records, 1982) (LP)
(Produced by Larry Moore)
Although this really looks like a folkie thing, there's some full-on country, including several songs from professional tunesmiths Ann J. Morton and Dennis W. Morgan, who were successful Top Forty country composers. Jim Oliver seems to have been under contract to the Welk Music Group, though Prairie Dust was Ann Morton's label, and producer Larry Moore was her husband. Oliver wrote a bunch of stuff with Morgan, including several of the songs on this album, and though I don't know where he was from originally, one assumes he was plugging away in Nashville for a while. Any info would be welcome!

Clink Olsen "Gear Jammin' Cowboy" (Gallatin Records, 1983) (LP)
From Helena, Montana...

Dennis T. Olson "Fifth Avenue Cowboy" (Sunflower International Records, 1978) (LP)
(Produced by Ron Hallordson & Ralph Watts)
A rock-solid, steel-drenched pure country set from Winnipeg, Canada... This album is packed with great original material, including Olson's best-known song, "Truck Driving Outlaw," which found a second life on numerous latter-day trucker compilations. I couldn't find out much info about this guy online, but this is a very good record. He had a deep, robust, confident voice and a good strong backing band, all apparently local artists. If anyone out there has more info about Olson and this album, I'm all ears.

Hans Olson "Western Winds" (Joplin Records, 1973) (LP)
(Produced by A.J. Kubicsko & Marshall Marinakis)
The debut album of Arizona auteur Hans Olson, who moved from high school rock bands in California to a more personalized style after decamping out to the Southwest. This private-press LP is more roots-rock than pure twang, though it's definitely country-adjacent, with a feel that's similar to John Hiatt's early work. Olson later zeroed in more deliberately on a modern blues sound, though this disc has plenty of poetic acoustic ramblings, and might appeal to fans of Townes Van Zandt and the like. In the late 1980s Olson opened his own night spot, the Sun Club, in Tempe, Arizona, which he ran until 1992. He also later helped establish the Arizona Blues Hall Of Fame, and got involved in regional politics as a co-founder of the state's Green Party, and has recorded a bunch of blues and blues-rock albums over the years.

Harold Olson "...Sings Doggone Cowboy" (196--?) (LP)
Western songs, all sunsets and cowpokes, ropin' and dogies and whatnot, sung by Northwesterner Harold Olson, a rodeo announcer and auctioneer who was born in Spokane, but lived in Lewiston, Idaho. His all-locals band included bassists Gene Capps and Marv Cave, lead guitarists Larry Maugh, Gorge Palmer and Les Sneed, steel player Danny Sneed, and Don Sneed, Jr. (gee, I wonder if they were related!) on drums... The repertoire was packed with cowboy classics, along with originals such as "Doggone Cowboy" and "Cowboy In A Continental Suit" (both published by Marizono Music) and a cover of Leroy Van Dyke's novelty hit, "The Auctioneer," which showcases Olson's own skills at calling auctions. I'm not when, exactly, this came out, but I'm guessing late 'Sixties sometime, since the liner notes mention him attending auctioneering school in 1965.

Wellman W. Omohundro/Omo The Hobo "Party Album, Number One" (Hundro Music, 196--?) (LP)
Born in Fayette, Michigan in 1917, singer Wellman W. Omohundro enlisted in the Army in order to escape a life as a rural farm kid. He served in World War Two and after the demobilization, Omohundro took up a life as a traveling musician, busking and doing club gigs whenever and wherever he could find them. He specialized in "blue" material, smutty or suggestive songs which were memorialized in a seemingly endless string of 45rpm singles, EP and albums. He initially recorded for the Accent label in the 1950s, and then started his own label, which he used to release dozens of records under a variety of names: Smiley Joe Omohundro, Omo The Lobo and/or Omo The Hobo, etc. He sold these souvenir discs at his shows, and beginning in the '60s released a string of LPs, which are listed below. Omohundro was a relic of a bygone entertainment era, harkening back to the raunchy, ribald music-hall and vaudeville era of the late 1800s and early 20th Century. Musically primitive, his songs -- such as they are -- rely on crude double entendres and puerile sexual jokes. In a country music context, Omo The Hobo wasn't quite as savagely unfunny as, say, Doodles Weaver, but you have to be pretty devoted to lowbrow entertainers to really get into this stuff. It's a little funny, but it wears thin pretty quickly. (By the way, Omohundro is a real surname, sometimes spelled O'Muhundro, and seems to originally be from Scotland or Wales... Just in case you were wondering.)

Wellman W. Omohundro/Omo The Hobo "Party Album, Number Two" (Hundro Music, 1967) (LP)
This is the only Omo album I own, and hence the only one I can provide you with the correct release date... It includes humorous gems such as "I Used To Kiss Her On The Lips, But It's All Over Now," "Daddy Can't Fly His Kite 'Cause Mommy Won't Give Him No Tail" and "I'm A Musician, I Play With My Instrument." You kinda get the idea, right? The music is just Omo and his guitar, and while neither his picking nor singing are any great shakes, he does tackle these tunes with great gusto. Wink, wink, nudge nudge, and all that.

Wellman W. Omohundro/Omo The Hobo "Party Album, Number Three" (Hundro Music, 19--?) (LP)
It's worth noting that on this album the level of graphic design is miles above that of the previous volume, which basically was a plain black-and-white nothing-much cover -- here we get a fancy, full-color oil painting of a naked, redheaded cowgirl bearing her boobs while holding a stack of "party records" in one hand, and the reins of her horse in the other. Business must have been pretty good for Omohundro during the hippie era, if he was flush enough to make such a purty-looking album cover.

Wellman W. Omohundro/Omo The Hobo "Party Album, Number Four" (Hundro Music, 19--?) (LP)
By the way, many thanks to Steve Seymour's Upper Peninsula Archive for help with this discography... If you're interested in Omohundro's bazillions of singles, check out his website, which has info on most, though not all, of the records Omo put out over the years.

Wellman W. Omohundro/Omo The Hobo "Party Album, Number Five" (Hundro Music, 19--?) (LP)

Wellman W. Omohundro/Omo The Hobo "Party Album, Number Six" (Hundro Music, 19--?) (LP)
I think Omo moved around a lot... This album (with its saucy album art) gives an address in Fayette, Michigan...

Wellman W. Omohundro/Omo The Hobo "Party Album, Number Seven" (Hundro Music, 19--?) (LP)

Wellman W. Omohundro/Omo The Hobo "Party Album, Number Eight" (Hundro Music, 19--?) (LP)

One Hand Clapping "Skidum, Skidum Doo-Wah" (One Hand Clapping, 1977-?) (LP)
(Produced by Michael Leary & Red Erickson)
An eclectic roots/jug/string band led by songwriter Richard Blakley ("Red") Erickson, a guitarist originally from Northern California who was living near Seattle when he recorded these albums. The group previously appeared on the 1973 Club Zayante compilation album recorded in Santa Cruz, California, and years later thanked their old homies at freeform country station KFAT-FM in Gilroy... Trading one hippie enclave for the next, One Hand Clapping set up shop in Washington, and became a fixture on the late 'Seventies Pacific Northwest. Erickson later retired to Texas, and passed away in 2008 at age 66.

One Hand Clapping "Second Hand Clapping" (Thunder Oak Records, 1979) (LP)
(Produced by Red Erickson)
An even odder offering from these shaggy West Coasters, a grandiose, gospel-inflected, over-the-top, oddball boogie-rock/roots cabaret tour de force -- a bold statement, but a bit muddy and somewhat perplexing. I found it hard to focus on the lyrics, impassioned as they were, and the only song I could tell you what it's about it the album's closer, "Waiting For Gas," which is one of those topical 'Seventies tunes complaining about the "energy crisis," but even this one is problematic, as the vocals are delivered in a faux-Black, "urban" argot while this was a decidedly white band. Oh, well. Most of the songs were penned by Red Erickson, with a couple by co-vocalist Richard Dean, with backing by an all-local Washington state band, including Don Abernethy (guitar), Kim Cory (backing vocals), Richard Dean (keyboards and synthesizer), Red Erickson (lead vocals and guitar), Bobby Nachtsheim (saxophone), Kirk Tuttle (drums), and Mark Willett on bass... Most of these guys don't seem to have worked in other groups, though there is one notable exception: one of the backing vocalists was Stephen Whynott, a Pacific Northwest who had his own career as a pioneering New Age/World Music guitarist, and had released a couple of solo albums by the time this album came out; his involvement with One Hand Clapping may have been fairly minimal, though.

One-Time Syncopated Codpiece "...Once More With Feeling" (John Hassell Recordings, 1971) (LP)
Kooky, spaced-out, acoustic freak folk nuttiness from Leeds, UK. Kind of like the unplanned love child of The Mamas & Papas and The Fugs... if, you know, entire bands could kanoodle together and produce one single child. Anyway, this album isn't really country, per se (not by a longshot) but I do love weird old stuff from the 'Seventies... Also, I wanted to pose this question: what is it about the letter "O" that inspires so many bizarre band names? Seriously. I'm asking.

The Onlookers "...Sing And Play Country And Rock" (1974) (LP)
A teenage band from Dubuque, Iowa who self-identified as "country kids," this five-piece band featured lead vocals by Lynn Boylen, backed by brothers Mark and Bryce Bird (lead guitar and bass), rhythm guitarist Dennis Varo and drummer David Ducharme. They played a mainly country set, drawing heavily on early '70s hits like "Paper Roses," "Let Me Be There," "Satin Sheets" as well as pop tunes such as "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and "Indian Reservation" and instrumentals like "Wipeout" and "Groovy Grubworm." Earnest-o-rama, and Heartland-o-licious.

Orange Blossom Sound "Bluegrass And Orange Blossoms" (Epic Records, 1969) (LP)
(Produced by Bob Johnston & Roger Churchyard)
An eclectic British quartet which came to the attention of agent Mervyn Conn, one of the organizers of the Wembley music festival, who booked them at Wembley as well as some big concerts in London and elsewhere. Nashville producer Bob Johnston caught one of their shows and invited them into the studio, the result being this album, a pretty solid mix of progressive bluegrass, country and folk. The band consisted of fiddler/bandleader Roger Churchyard, Charlie Gaisford on banjo and guitar, Michael Artes on bass and lead guitar by Ian McCann. Some of their vocal arrangements seem left over from a Kingston Trio-type folk era, while many songs have a distinctly John Hartford-ish feel. The set includes material from folk luminaries such as Tim Hardin and Gordon Lightfoot, as well as The Dillards and Bob Dylan (of course!) There are also a couple of originals ("Cajun Trapper Man" and "My Heart Breaks A Little More Each Day") from fiddler Roger Churchyard (1947-2015) who was also in a duo with his wife, called Roger & Judi, and recorded an album under that name in 1976. These guys were pretty good; this is actually their second album, though the first was more of a generic budget-label 'grass album only released in the UK.

Original Bluegrass Opera Of Detroit "Original Bluegrass Opera Of Detroit" (1977) (LP)
(Produced by Herschel Freeman)
Musicians are often asked about their days jobs, and in this case, the answer is linked to the music itself... The Bluegrass Opera Of Detroit was a touring company that performed a stage play of the same name, a twangy saga written in praise of the then-vibrant auto industry, as seen through the eyes of several characters who worked on the factory lines at a time when unionized jobs were plentiful and well-paid. This album is an unusual memento of a live stage show that was commissioned by a grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts, with a libretto written by Bud McKirgan, with musical backing from a band called North Country Bluegrass. The characters they play were of workers who had migrated to the Motor City from several Southern and Appalachian states, (although the musicians themselves included several Northerners from Chicago, NYC and Detroit) and the story is about how Detroit was a magnetic city where people came for work, and stayed for life... The LP was apparently released by the cast at their own expense, and is a curio of both the music and of the history it represents, of the days when Detroit was prosperous and vibrant. Highlights include a novelty number called "My Children Can't Stand Bluegrass," a union ballad called "You Put The U In The UAW," and "Trucks In Kentucky," about the spread of the auto industry into American South.

The Original Joplin Forte "Ain't Misbehavin' " (MCA-Shamley Records, 1968) (LP)
(Produced by George Fernandez)
Led by banjoist Dennis Coats, this short-lived group apparently grew out of the Los Angeles/Southern California folk/bluegrass scene, with Coats taking a dip into the spaced-out songwriter ouvre, with a few whiffs of John Sebastian-esque psychedelic jugband added into the mix. In all honesty, this isn't a very successful record: although there's a superficial similarity to roots-music genre-bender John Hartford (kooky lyrics, lackadaisical banjo plunking, hippie iconography and even a cover of Hartford's chart-busting "Gentle On My Mind") there's little of Hartford's giddy stylistic flair and keen originality -- this seems forced and straining to succeed, rather than innovative and above the fray, and though he's a decent musician, Coats was a remarkably stiff, un-fluid singer. A genuine artifact of its time, for sure, although I imagine it's not really a record that many people would want to come back to just for pure listening pleasure... I could be wrong, though. It's certainly notable that Coats wrote all but four of the songs on here, so it includes a trove of unique -- if not electrifying -- material.

The Original Sloth Band "Whoopee After Midnight" (Troubadour Records, 1973) (LP)
A jazzy, retrodelic stringband from Canada, with covers of various rags, blues tunes and Depression-era novelty songs. Highlights include "(I Just Want To Be) Horizontal," "I'm A Vulture (For Horticulture)" and "Get A Job," along with more well-known standards, such as "The Sheik Of Araby," "Temperance Reel" and "How Long Blues."

The Original Texas Playboys "Bob Wills Day: Live From Turkey, Texas" (Delta Records, 1984) (LP)
(Produced by Leon LcAuliffe, Gary Scott & David Stallings)
A latter-day lineup of the Texas Playboys recorded live at the 1983 Bob Wills Day celebration, in Turkey, Texas, considered the "home of Bob Wills," as the Wills family bought a farm nearby when Wills was in his teens. Led by steel player Leon McAuliffe, the group also includes the twin fiddles of Bob Boatright and Gene Gasaway, Smokey Dacus (drums), Joe Frank Ferguson (bass), Leon Rausch (bass), Eldon Shamblin (guitar) and Brother Al Stricklin on piano. This double album set opens with a bunch of western swing classics -- "Bubbles In My Beer," "Milk Cow Blues," "Maiden's Prayer," "San Antonio Rose," though the farther you get into the set, the more esoteric some of the choices become. Country jazz traditionalism at its finest!.

The Original Texas Playboys "A Western Swing Christmas" (Delta Records, 1985) (LP)
(Produced by Leon LcAuliffe, Gary Scott & David Stallings)

Orion - see artist discography

Lore Coyote Orion "Lore Coyote Orion" (PT Records, 198-?) (LP)
(Produced by Bandera Bob)
A solo album by the multi-talented songwriter/graphic artist/humorist Lawrence Shoberg, aka Lore Orion (1949-2013), who led the country-rock group Bandera in the early '80s, and later formed his own band, Lore And The Legends, as well as the "heavy leather" hard-twang band, KATTL, with his longtime collaborator, Bobby E. Boyd (aka Bandera Bob). Although originally from California, Orion was a full-time, all-in Texan by the time he made this album, actually living in Bandera, near the bright lights of San Antonio, where this album was recorded. Apparently, it was only released in Europe but it's definitely a Lone Star kinda thing, packed with original material such as "I Wish I Was In Texas," "Texas Ain't The Same," "Once You Cross The Line," and "She Likes To Drive Me Crazy." The band included Bandera Bob and Lore Orion, along with Rick Rawls, John Ludwick and others, some of whom helped form KATTL around this time.

Gilbert Ortega "The King Of Indian Jewelry Goes Country" (Ortega Records, 1977) (LP)
(Produced by Little Richie Johnson)
Holbrook, New Mexico's well-known Native American businessman Gilbert Ortega -- best known for cornering the market on turquoise jewelry -- sings a set of bilingual country standards, mostly honkytonkers and weepers like "Crying Time," "Cold, Cold Heart," "Nobody's Darlin' But Mine" and "Together Again." Local producer Richie Johnson booked time with an A-list usual-suspects studio crew: Johnny Gimble, Lloyd Green, Dave Kirby, Charlie McCoy, Hargus Robbins, et. al. I guess despite being an adequate but limited vocalist, Ortega really gave a career as a country singer a shot for a while, although his bread and butter was, of course, his multi-million dollar jewelry empire... Still, as vanity records go, this disc's a doozy.

Palito Ortega "En Nashville" (RCA Records, 1966) (LP)
(Produced by Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson & Jim Malloy)

Palito Ortega "Boogaloo Nashville Style" (RCA Records, 1967) (LP)
(Produced by Bob Ferguson & Jim Malloy)
Oh, wow... Nashville Boogaloo? I'm in! I mean, jinkies... this looks even better than the "Brazil Country" album cut in the early 'Seventies by California guitarist Tony Brazil, which I also salivated over when I saw a copy at my local Record Hut. But, much like that record, this disc is a bit of a letdown, at least from a country-lover's perspective. Palito Ortega was a teenybopper pop singer from Argentina, technically a rocker, but more in a Brill Building/Gene Pitney-esque mode than a Nuggets- worthy wildman. Sure, the liner notes on this album make mention of (North) American rockabilly, and sure, he went to Nashville to cut this album and the one that preceded it, but there is precious little twang to be heard, even though his Spanish-language translations of several contemporary pop hits are kinda fun. We're talking about stuff like "Happy Together" by the Turtles, some early Neil Diamond ("A Little Bit Me," at the time a Monkees hit) and a slew of Ortega's own originals, giving off a vaguely Johnny Rivers-like, teenbeat go-go era vibe, with backing from an anonymous Nashville crew that no doubt included stalwarts such as Charlie McCoy, et.al., who were always up for a good-natured foray into the pop-rock scene. There were also a couple of overtly country songs that were transliterated into Ortega's perky vibe -- Roger Miller's "Walkin' In The Sunshine" and one called "Love," by songsmith Darrell Statler, though overall it's a real stretch to call this one a "country" record. Or a boogaloo album, for that matter. I suppose this is one of those rare "you were warned" reviews for twangfans, though hardly a slam on what is essentially a harmless, reasonably groovy old album. [Note: this was released in Argentina under the title El Magnetismo De Palito Ortega, so no need to buy it twice!]

Osage "Greatest Hits" (Ragweed Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Osage)
Dunno too much about this Northern California band, who hailed from Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco... Mixing western swing and honkytonk, Osage were a talented group, roughly in the same stylistic orbit as Asleep At The Wheel, if not quite in the same league professionally. This album offers a strong set of mostly-original material, with songs written by all four of the core bandmembers, pianist Jim Hirst, bassist Ken Hobbs, steel player Mike Phillips and drummer Scott Saturday. The sound mix isn't great - the rhythm section seems a little buried -- but the music is tops. Highlights include heartbreakers such as "She's Driving You Out Of My Mind" and the alcohol novelty song, "Never Like Drinkin' Alone" (in which the singer says "howdy" to every beer, whiskey and gin he downs, just to have somebody to talk to...) A pretty swell indiebilly album, if you can track it down!

Osage "The Best Of Country Swing" (DMG Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Gradie O'Neal & Jeannine Osborn)
Turns out I was wrong about Greatest Hits being their only album... There's also this groovy set of classic country cover songs, zeroing in on western swing songs such as "Take Me Back To Tulsa," "Crazy Cause I Love You," "Roly Poly" and "San Antone Rose." The performances are little restrained and polite, but it's still such great music. As the great Bob Wills might have put it: ....aahhhhh, yessss!!

Rommie Osbahr "Yesterday Today" (Son Circuit, 1980-?) (LP)
(Produced by Dee Mullins)
Haven't got a lot of info about this one... Although he recorded this album in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, singer-guitarist Rommie Osbahr seems to have been living out in western Iowa, near Omaha, and released a few singles as well as the album. The studio crew includes folks like Hoot Hester, Bunky Keels, and Judy Rodman singing backup... There are several cover songs ("Rave On," "Settin' The Woods On Fire") as well as some original material... I'm not sure when this album came out, though Osbahr was still doing locals shows in the late 1980s, according to the newspapers of the time.

John Osborne & The Southern Express "Down South Jukin' " (1978-?) (LP)
(Produced by John Osborne & Kal Sands)
Not a lot of info about these folks -- there's no address on this disc, alas, and nothing I could find online about their musical career. Anyway, the group included brothers John and Joe Osbourne on bass and drums, respectively, Danny Crabtree on guitar and Larry Thomas playing piano and horns, working through a repertoire that definitely included country, but seems more tilted towards a southern rock sound. On the country side, there's stuff by Ronnie Milsap and Mel Street, outweighed by a slew of tunes by Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band, a cover of Bob Seger's "Turn The Page," and -- of course! -- a version of Charlie Daniels' "South's Gonna Go It Again." On a more oddball note, they also cover Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street," which seems a little off-brand, but hey man, it was the 'Seventies, and who doesn't love that song? Anyone know more about these guys?

Jerry Ostensoe "When I Was Young" (Lovely Lynzier Records, 198--?) (LP)
(Produced by J. Frederic DeVir)
This fella from from Granite Falls, Minnesota is more in a folkie-bluesy mode, though there's definitely a country streak there as well... Other than a cover of Hank Williams' "Jambalaya," these are all Ostensoe originals, including a bunch of regional pride songs: "Davenport, Iowa," "Milwaukee Railroad Blues," and one written about the battle of Little Bighorn. The compact band includes Elmo Volstad (guitar), Todd Johnson (bass), David Smiglewski (drums) and Steve Brendemoen (lead guitar), whose collective names are truly testimony to the ethnic diversity of the Great Lakes region. Though I'm sure the musical lineup has changed quite a bit over the years, Jerry Ostensoe was still playing gigs as recently as 2017!.

Al Oster - see artist discography

Ellen Lee Osterfield "Ghost Town Lady" (Hadley Studios, 1979) (LP)
A country music prodigy, Australia's Ellen Lee Osterfield began performing professionally in the mid-1980s and was a protege of Aussie twang elders Smoky Dawson and Buddy Williams. (On the liner notes of her second album, Williams explained that Osterfield's father was one of his old army buddies, and he had known her all her life...) This was her first album, self-released and produced at the Hadley Studios in Tamworth, with backing by steel player Norm Bodkin, Gary Brown on guitar, Bob Clark (guitar), Lawrence Minson (dobro), Eric Newton (guitar), Ken Ramsey (drums), Howard Smith (bass) and Greg Thomas blowing harmonica. The liner notes inform us she was in a country band called Tyre when she cut this album, though it's not clear if these were the same guys backing her on these sessions. (Also mentioned is her work as an oil painter and visual artist, which she turned her full attention towards after she left the music scene in the late '80s...) As on all three of her albums, most of the material is original, including a few songs with regional Australian themes, such as "Kepple Island Dream"; this album was later reissued on Selection Records, where she recorded her next two albums...

Ellen Lee Osterfield "Outlaw" (Selection Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Ross McGregor & Carrl Myriad)
Once again, most of the songs are Osterfield originals, with two other --- by Australian artists, David Allen Caswell's "Poor Side Of Heaven" and "Annie Johnson," penned by Bernie O'Brien, of the band Saltbush. The studio musicians are completely different from her previous album... Here she's backed by Chris Duffy on banjo, dobro and guitar, Bob Howe (lead guitar), John Nadort (drums), album producer Carrl Myriad on guitar, Allan Tomkins (bass) and Mike Tyne on pedal steel. Buddy Williams and Smoky Dawson both contribute glowing liner notes and the album includes a song called including "Thanks To Buddy," which presumably was dedicated to Buddy Williams, who she was touring with at the time.

Ellen Lee Osterfield "Runnin' Free" (Selection Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Norm Bodkin, Craig Thomas & Eric Watson)
The third album by this southern Australian gal is a pretty solid set, packed with original material, including ten songs by Ms. Osterfield along with two others -- Pam Cohen's "Singin' Rodeo Rider" and R. Hyland's "California."

Otter Creek "Otter Creek" (Bolt Records, 1977) (LP)
(Produced by Frank Boulton)
A "lost" hippiebilly country-rock gem of mellow yet twangy splendor. Attention all ye fans of late '60s Byrds, early '70s Grateful Dead, New Riders Of The Purple Sage, Greezy Wheels, et. al., this is an album you'll want to track down. Amiable, uncomplicated stoner twang by some longhairs from upstate New York... Many of the songs are of the looking-for-love-but-drunk-at-the-bar variety, with frontman Robert Presti singing lead on most tracks, as well as Tommy Sennes on pedal steel, and Bill Smith playing lead guitar and mandolin. The picking is decent though not dazzling, but the vibe is just right. A good-time band with a sincere country sound... Definitely worth a spin!

Otter Creek Slide "Once A Day" (BOC Records, 1983) (LP)
(Produced by Brad Edwards)
Amazingly, this is a different group than the country-rock band above... These folks were a bluegrass band from Osceola, Iowa, clustered around Drake University, with Danny Davis on banjo, Bruce Schultz (guitar), Barb Silver (vocals), Bob Wright (mandolin), and Trish Wright on bass. They look harmless.

Elayne Otterson "The Lonesome Streets Of Town" (Rhinestone Rooster Records, 1986) (LP)
(Produced by Elayne Otterson & Jim Stanton)
Not a lot of info about this gal from Fargo, North Dakota... She was represented by country promoter Howard Vokes, who later leased a bunch of his stuff to the German collector label, Binge Discs, so the album below (on Lucky Lady) came out in Europe several years later. Along with some oldies by Zeke Clements, Harlan Howard and Webb Pierce, this album spotlights three songs written by Ms. Otterson, as well as five by Terry S. Smith, a veteran songwriter who once had a song ("I Can't Find A Train") recorded by Roy Acuff, and another called "A Few Good Funerals" cut by Eddie Noack. I have to confess I have pretty divided feelings about this album... On one hand, the unidentified Nashville musicians backing her turn in one earnest, professional performance after another, while the songs are all good, solid old-fashioned weepers, the kind of stuff I like. I dig her true-country, rural vibe, which reminds me of great gals like Delia Bell and Melba Montgomery... On the other hand, I'm pretty sure she was singing out of tune, and that can be a little distracting. I guess the best way to look at this is from a musician's perspective: if you're a traditionally-oriented contemporary artist looking for "new" material with a very old, 1940s/'50s heartsong sound, this album could be a real goldmine. But for casual listening? Maybe not so much. Not trying to be mean, this is just a flawed "real person" record.

Ouray "Chrome On The Range" (Taxi Records, 1978) (LP)
(Produced by Ed Cherney & Ouray)
A pretty strong, commercially oriented country-rock record by a regionally successful band that was based in Chicago. They had a solid mix of softer, country-oriented material and slightly more aggressive '70s guitar rock, with some Southern rock touches such as Allmanesque twin guitars, and lots of chicken-pickin' licks, generally framed in a mellow rock-pop sound. The vocals are particularly nice, with the quintet proving themselves adept at the same sort of airy, post-CSN&Y hippie rock harmonies heard in bands such as Poco and Firefall. I like their softer side, especially when the pedal steel takes the lead, though unfortunately they seem to have felt obliged to add a long guitar solo into every song, and that often kills the mood for me. Still, all in all, this is a record worth knowing about and maybe even tracking down if you're into this brand of '70s AOR. Not sure if any of these guys did anything else, but this seems like one of those great almost-coulda-made-it bands you find out about now and then. Great album title, too!

Ouray "Motor Dream" (Taxi Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Andy Watermann)
Alas, on their sophomore album, Ouray pretty much abandoned their country roots and pursued a more mainstream rock sound. I wouldn't go as far as saying this is dreadful, but's definitely not twangy, and even as a bar-band rock record, it falls flat. Mostly it's just very generic-sounding and bland; on one track they try their hand at reggae (uh...) and though I suppose the opening tracks could have plausibly been pitched as Eddie Rabbit-style country-pop, twangfans need not apply. It isn't until the very last track that they explore a direction that could have given them a more distinctive path: the album closes with "Can't Go On This Way," a decent high-harmony/falsetto power-pop tune with a strong Raspberries influence. If the whole record had sounded like that, it would be way more memorable.

The Outlaws "Hurry Sundown" (Arista Records, 1977) (LP)

The Outlaws "Big Mac" (Alvera Records, 1974-?) (LP)
(Produced by Al Clauser)
Not to be confused with the Top Forty band above, these outlaws were the real deal: a prison band from McAlester State Penitentiary, located in eastern Oklahoma. Like a lot of big prisons, McAlester organized a music program as an outlet for the inmates, who were into country music as well as other styles. They recorded at the studios of western swing veteran Al Clauser's Tulsa-based Alvera Records, though I don't know if Clauser or his house band pitched in on the sessions. The McAlester musicians are pictured wearing matching outfits, sporting dark blazers over big-striped prisoner pants, straight out of a 1930s cartoon. I doubt anyone teased them about it, though; they don't look like the kinda guys you'd want to tease much. The repertoire is mostly covers of country classics, with a gospel tune or two, a little rock, and an adaptation of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," mildly morphed into "Big Mac Prison Blues."

The Outpost Family "The Family Sings" (Shiloh Records, 1981-?) (LP)
(Produced by Gene Humphrey)
Some nice, simple bluegrass and stringband music from a group out of Winfield, Kansas. This was a family band, led by Don Wise and his wife Donna, along with various kids and their partners, as well as a gaggle of little kids. Mr. Wise had been in a Wichita rock band back in the 1950s, but had to quit after an accident that paralyzed his lower body. After the family moved to Winfield in 1976, they got into bluegrass music, and over the years performed at a number of festivals and contests. I think this was their first album, and while the band steadily moved towards an all-gospel repertoire, this set is almost all secular, packed with standards such as "Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms" and "Jesse James," Leadbelly's "Cottonfields" and "Heart To Heart" from the Stanley Brothers." There are also a couple of originals written by Mr. Wise, one called "The Country" and "Skunk In The Chicken House." The album ends with a gospel medley -- pointing towards things to come -- though the track pairs a couple of standards, "I'll Fly Away" and "I Saw The Light" with a tune I confess I never saw fitting into the country gospel genre, Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'." Though this album was released on a nationally-distributed bluegrass label, it was recorded back home at an indie studio in Wichita, with the band self-releasing their subsequent albums...

The Outpost Family "How About You?" (Outpost Records, 1982-?) (LP)
I think this was their second album, and includes more original material, such as "One More Songs For The King" and "Sold On Jesus," written by Don Wise, and "The Plains," which was co-written with his son-in-law, flatpicker Barry Hus. Nice stuff!

The Outpost Family Band "A Little Outpost Of Heaven" (Outpost Records, 1984) (LP)
While the second side of this album is all gospel material, Side One is mainly secular, though devoted to, well, to nostalgia more than anything else... There are some rural twang oldies, such as "Rabbit In A Log," as well as more modern sentimental songs like "Grandma's Feather Bed," "Crawdad Hole," "Song Of The South" and -- not to put too fine a point on it -- one called "The Good Old Days." The gospel stuff is equally a mix of old tunes and modern emulations, ranging from "Do Lord " and "Leaning On The Everlasting" to Donna Fargo's anthemic '70s pop-country hit, "You Can't Be A Beacon," which remains a great singalong song.

The Outpost Family Band "Sing A Happy Song" (Outpost Records, 1985) (LP)
(Produced by The Outpost Family)

Johnny Overload "The Race Has Just Begun" (Lemco, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by David McGhee & J. D. Miller)
One of the Lemco label's odd forays into non-bluegrass material... and to honest, not one of its most successful records. The album opens with "The Race Has Just Begun," an off-balance comedy number revolving around Nascar-style racing -- it's one of those belabored, not-that-funny country comedy bits, highly reminiscent of Don Bowman's old stuff. Then the album wrenches into low gear with a pair of disastrously self-important, overwritten, would-be-epic story-songs, about a hard-driving, rambling-man, lonesome kinda trucker fella. It's at this point we discover that "Johnny Overload" (aka bandleader David McGhee) was not a terribly good singer. He's into it, sure, but he's a little bit warbly and all over the map. Anyway, I think McGhee was playing the part of "Johnny Overload," a name taken from an old, classic trucker song which was covered by Johnny Bond. The other lead singer is Keith Allan, whose full name was Keith Allen Booth, and he wrote about half the material on this album but only sings on a couple of tunes towards the end. For my money, his song, "High On The Hog," is the album highlight. Mostly, this disc didn't do much for me: turns out you're digging a little too deep if you've gotten down this far.

Billy Owen & The All-American Band "Sounds Of Lakeland's Brand New Opry" (Lakeland Records, 197--?) (LP)
(Produced by Johnny Phillips)
The name "Brand New Opry" was a spoof of the fabled Grand Ole Opry, although instead of being rooted in a specific place, the BNO was actually a touring bluegrass band out of Lakeland, Florida. This early edition of the band featured Billy Owen on vocals, along with Sandi Braden, Willie Burroughs, Teresa Chadwick, and Cindy Poole... The group as an institution has survived intact well into the 2010s (so far!) although the membership has completely changed over the years. Not completely sure when this album came out... From the country-pop hits they cover -- "You Can't Be A Beacon," "There Goes My Everything" and "Let Me Be There" -- I'd guess this was from around 1974-75.

Owen Brothers "Audiograph Alive" (Audiograph Records, 1982) (LP)
One of the odder -- and odder looking -- indie labels of the early '80s, Audiograph Records packaged their artists in a distinctive but unruly format, with a plastic spiral-ring binder in place of the usual flat spines that are the industry standard. The label often made itself home to various old-timers and former Nashville headliners who had fallen out of fashion, but they also signed and supported a fair number of aspiring new artists, as in the case of this album. I'm not sure where the Owen Brothers, Bill and Marty, were from, but Audiograph does seem to have made a sincere effort do establish them as legit Top 40 artists, with plugs and ads in Billboard and elsewhere, resulting in two singles that grazed the outer limits of the Back Forty in 1982 and '83, "Southern Women" and "Nights Out At The Day's End." Other than that, though, they remain pretty obscure

Jim Owen "...As Hank: The Life Of Hank Williams In Story And Song" (Gold Records, 1974-?) (LP)
(Produced by Jim Owen & Les Ladd)

Jim Owen & The Drifting Cowboys "A Salute To Hank Williams: A Song For Us All" (Epic Records, 1978) (LP)
During the 1970s, Nashville songwriter Jim Owen developed a one-man stage show tribute to his hero, Hank Williams, and he recorded this double-LP along with several former members of Hank Williams's band, the Drifting Cowboys. In 1978 he made it into Billboard with a strictly Back-40 cover version of "Lovesick Blues," but while chart success was elusive, his theatrical show was well-regarded, and is reflected in this widely-distributed album. An oddity, in some ways, but certainly the king-daddy of all Hank Williams tribute albums.

Jim Owen "Hank: Original Soundtrack Recordings, Volume One" (Sun Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Shelby Singleton, Jr.)

Ray Owen "Well Wasted Afternoons" (Police Records, 1984) (LP)
(Produced by Arne Brav)
Great album cover, but a little more folkie-eclectic than I'd been hoping for... Hailing from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, songwriter Ray Owen may have been aiming for a Steve Goodman or Gove Scrivenor-esque mix of folk, blues, pop and twang, but for the most part it doesn't really grab me... Includes some fiddle and mandolin, but also tenor sax and Korg synthesizer and even the mighty DX-7 keyboard on a tune or two. So, you see where we're heading here? A possible highlight might be "You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Love Her (But It Sure Would Help)" which features a dixieland brass band backing his bluesy vocals... Anyway folk fans may dig this disc, but my dreams of discovering a lost honkytonk gem were dashed right away.

Ann Owens "You're Gonna Love Me" (Blue Seagull Records, 1978) (LP)
(Produced by Jim Day & Bill Wade)
An album's worth of all-original material from songwriter Ann Owens, who had been playing gigs for a while at the fabled Palomino Club in Los Angeles before cutting this album... She's backed by a bunch of high-profile Southern California country pickers, including guitarist/arranger Jerry Cole, Pete Kleinow and Jay Dee Maness on steel guitar, Larry McNeely plunking banjo and Curtis Stone on bass, among others. Among her songs are "Country Pickin' Singin' Fool Like Me," "Kansas Back To Nowhere," "North Carolina Country Girl" -- a couple of these songs were also recorded by pop-country star Rusty Draper on another album on the Blue Seagull label. The Hollywood-based label was owned by Chic Sorenson, who seems to have been a patron of Owens' career; several of the same musicians, including Jerry Cole also appear on both albums. I'm not sure where Owens was originally from, but she was definitely in the center of LA's country rock scene in its peak years.

Bill Owens & The Kinfolk "Songs Of The Smokie Mountains" (REM Records, 1967) (LP)
You can be forgiven for mistaking this as just another generic folk-revival "mountain music" album, but scratch under the surface and you'll find that Bill Owens (guitar) and his wife Dorothy Jo Owens (banjo) were "kinfolk" to no less than Dolly Parton, as was the album's fiddler Jake Owens, and they were indeed authentic practitioners of old-fashioned Tennessee-style twang. The set list looks pretty tame -- gospel songs and folk chestnuts such as "Down In The Valley," "Barbara Allen," "On Top Of Old Smokey" and "Tom Dooley," though there are also several resonant country weepers, like "Careless Love" and "Gently Are The Weeping Willows." Although both Bill and Dorothy Jo were prolific songwriters, I don't think they contributed original material to this one, but fans of the Parton clan will still wanna check it out.

Clyde Owens -- see artist profile

David Owens "Sunshine Go Lightly" (Crazy Cajun Records, 1978) (LP)
(Produced by Huey P. Meaux & Mickey Moody)
Very much not what you'd expect from the Crazy Cajun swamp pop'n'twang label... I suppose this could be lumped in generally speaking with the 'Seventies country-rock scene, but mostly in a sideways manner -- keyboardist/composer David Owens was definitely a rock guy. Owens had a long history on the Dallas garage-psych scene, most notably as the primary songwriter of the late-'Sixties group Those Guys, who cut a few singles and demos, including an early version of this album's title track. I'm not sure what he did after Those Guys broke up, but he definitely seems to have let his musical vision percolate for a while, and came back with a very cohesive set of tunes for this solo album. The opening track, "The Greatest Thing," kicks in with a brash, almost confrontational white funk intro and quickly slides into a very Grateful Dead-like hippie-rock sound. But just when you think you've got a bead on where he's headed, Owens shifts decisively into an airier, cosmic-melodic rock mode reminiscent of Big Star or British bands such as Badfinger, with more than just an echo of George Harrison's harmonic sensibilities, and maybe even a hint of early Tom Petty. It's actually quite a good record, maybe a few years behind the times, but definitely a hidden gem waiting for 'Seventies rock fans to rediscover, though country fans might not dig it that much. No info on the backing musicians, unfortunately. At any rate, it's a pretty solid record... recommended!

Duane Owens & The Arkansas Country "Our Kind Of Country" (Cupid Records, 197--?) (LP)
(Produced by Stan Getz)
First things first: I'm pretty sure the guy playing guitar and producing this album is not the same Stan Getz who blew sax and had a global hit with "Girl From Ipanema." I could be wrong, but... Anyway, singer Duane Owens was born in Caraway, Arkansas and started playing guitar while in the Army, forming a band with pedal steel player Dan Hullihen in 1975. They're joined here by Stan Getz (lead guitar), Paul Strothers (drums) and Jim Williams (bass), with backing vocals from a couple of gals identified as Joy Jean and Sherry Lynn. The set list includes a bunch of covers, as well as several Duane Owens originals: "Heartache To Heaven," "I Don't Need You Anymore," "Let's Just Say Goodbye," "Six Pack Of Heartaches," as well as "Dan's Theme," composed by Mr. Hullihan.

Dusty Owens "Country Ballads" (Wyncote Records, 1967) (LP)
(Produced by Mark Cohen-?)
This is a pretty fun record... maybe not a "great" record, but I enjoyed it. The late Dusty Owens (1930-2015) started his country music career as a teenager, playing on the radio in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. He went on to a high-profile gig on the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree, and had a few medium-level chart entries, including his own song, "Once More," which became a country music standard, recorded by dozens of artists, including Roy Acuff, Bill Anderson, Vince Gill, George Jones, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton... Like a lot of '50s country artists, bit by bit he slipped off the radar as far as the big Nashville labels were concerned, but somehow he cut a lot of sessions for Wyncote, a cheapo label on the East Coast, and there's some fun stuff on these records. Owens' vocals sound kind of like a less-passionate Faron Young, relaxed, robust and suave -- on this album he sounds particularly laid-back, with a curious counterpoint provided by some mildly hyperactive lead guitar and pedal steel... (My suspicion is that Owens actually just recorded with vocal and acoustic guitar and the electric stuff was dubbed in... but who knows?) Anyway, the songs are good -- mopey heartsongs with a loping rhythm, including a few obvious covers and some other songs that seem like they were originals. His early stuff (available on CD reissues) is more solid musically, but these later tracks are definitely worth a spin!

Dusty Owens "Your Kind Of Country" (Wyncote Records, 1967) (LP)
Several covers of mainstream country hits from the 1950s and early '60s -- "Yonder Comes A Sucker," "Saginaw Michigan," "Billy Bayou," and the like, as well as some more obscure stuff, probably including a few Dusty Owens originals.

Dusty Owens "Country And Western" (Wyncote Records, 1967) (LP)
This one's more "western" oriented, i.e. full of cowboy songs like "Red River Valley," "Blackjack David" and "Blood On The Saddle." But if you enjoy that kind of material, you might wanna check this one out.

Dusty Owens "Hey There, It's Me Again" (Admiral Records, 1971) (LP)

Hank Owens "...Sings Country Songs For Secret Agents" (Modern Records, 196-?) (LP)
(Produced by William Beasley)
A gimmicky mix of 'Sixties "spy jazz" and country twang, Nashville style. "Hank Owens" might have been a real person, but it seems equally likely it was a rural-sounding hillbilly portmanteau designed to wow the rubes. This came out in a few different editions. Cool cover art.

Kenny Owens & The Travelers "Most Requested Songs: Mid-American Music" (Ork Records, 1970-?) (LP)
A souvenir album recorded at Rimrock Studios, this set dips into Owens's rockabilly past but also bridges into country and soul. The band included Kenny Owens on guitar and lead vocal, backed by Larry Donn on piano and organ, Ronnie Harris (drums), Dub Phelps (bass), and Eddie Slusser on lead guitar. The country stuff included evergreens such as "Green, Green Grass Of Home," "Together Again" and "Okie From Muskogee," as well as a version of Johnny Cash's current hit, "A Boy Named Sue." They also covered some rock oldies, like "Hot Rod Race" and "Great Balls Of Fire," as well as Jimmie Reed's "Big Boss Man" and Wilson Pickett's "Midnight Hour." So, a pretty diverse sampling of Southern musical tastes... It's worth noting that Larry Donn cut several albums of his own, and contributes one original to this album, a tune called "Settin' In The Bathroom." This album appears to have been sold directly at Kenny Owen's live shows; I haven't laid eyes on the actual album yet, though I heard about it through German Wikipedia, as well as this groovy hillbilly blog.

Kenny Owens "If I Were A Carpenter" (Ork Records, 19--?) (LP)
(Produced by Bill Deacon & Billy Ray Marlin)

Shad Owens "...And The Hi-Way Rhythm Boys" (Kay-Jay Records, 19--?) (LP)
(Produced by Fred Robbins)
Not a ton of info about this one, including when, exactly, the album was recorded... The artwork is super-low budget, in a we-haven't-quite-figured-out-this-whole-custom-label-thing kind of way, and the recording was done in mono, so I'd guess, I dunno, the mid 'Sixties, maybe like 1965-66, especially with the band covering the Buck Owens hit, "I've Got A Tiger By The Tail." It was a strictly local affair: bandleader Shad Owens lived in the tiny town of Otterbein, Indiana, just south of Chicago, and his band members were from nearby towns such as Earl Park, Logansport and Monticello, though the sessions were recorded just across the state line over in Wateska, Illinois, most likely at the studio of radio station WGFA, where the band had made a few on-air appearances. Backing Mr. Owens were Jimmy Douglas (fiddle and guitar), Wayne Light (bass), Larry "Peanuts" Sullivan (steel guitar), a compact little group with local gigs at venues such as the Pinewood Inn, also located in Wateska, as well as a couple of bars in neighboring Lafayette, IN, the Circle Bar and the Wabash Hotel. Although some edition of the band was still doing local shows at least as recently as the late 1990s, the only other record by the Rhythm Boys that I know of is a single cut a few years later... One song, "Send Back The Pieces," credited Shad Owens as composer, though the vocalist was Jimmie D. Powers (possibly Jimmy Douglas? just speculating here...) I'm sure a lot of stuff must have gone on in the intervening thirty years, but Mr. Owens left a surprisingly light footprint online. I'm assuming Larry Sullivan is the same guy who had his own country band in the late 'Seventies, a little further south, down in Vincennes... but you never know.

Earl Owensby/Various Artists "Death Driver" (Soundtrack) (CMC Records, 1975) (LP)
(Produced by Arthur Smith, Chuck Owens & Hank Poole)
Apparently this was the soundtrack album to a mid-'70s country hicksploitation film -- the fictional "true" story of an aging stunt car driver trying to make a comeback. It was produced by and starred auteur-entrepreneur Earl Owensby -- redneck culture's answer to Ed Wood -- who also sings on one track. The music was provided by Arthur Smith and Clay Smith (aka Smith & Son) with Side One featuring vocals by a variety artists, including the Smiths, the Schuylers and a gal named Maggie Griffin, while Side Two seems to be all incidental music. An oddity from the heyday of redneck cinema.

Earl Owensby "Earl's Classic Rock 'N' Country" (CMC Records, 1976-?) (LP)
(Produced by Arthur Smith, Chuck Owens & Hank Poole)
An odd, eclectic set by Earl Owensby, a B-movie producer and actor nicknamed "the redneck Roger Corman," whose production studio was located in North Carolina. He starts this album out with some straight-ahead country, stuff by Eddie Miller and Conway Twitty, then dips into gospel for a tune or two... Side Two kicks off with a song he co-wrote with producer Arthur Smith, "Rock N' Country," and then dives into a flurry of Fats Domino songs. Go figure. As far as I know, this was his only album. Among the locals backing him were Arthur Smith and his son, Clay Smith, as well as songwriter Tommy Faile, sitting in on bass.

Vernon Oxford - see artist discography

The Oxpetals "The Oxpetals" (Mercury Records, 1970) (LP)
(Produced by Steve Boone & Warren Dewey)
An inventive, distinctive longhaired rock band from Oak Ridge, New Jersey... These guys aren't entirely what you'd call a "country rock" group, but their chunky, disjointed arrangements certainly left enough space for plenty of twang to come through. Surprisingly modern-sounding and accessible to fans of lo-fi DIY. I can't imagine this sold all that well back in the Woodstock era, but it sounds fascinating, all these decades later. Definitely worth checking out.

Ozark Bible Bluegrass Revival "Ozark Bible Bluegrass Revival" (Lemco Records, 1977) (LP)
This gospel group, which included Scott Bond, Rusty Martin, Ken Smith and Dave Stackable, was from (around?) Joplin, Missouri, though their history as a band is a little vague. The liner notes mention them playing together in the fall of '76, and while this lineup seems to have fallen apart fairly quickly, most of the guys went on to play in various other bluegrass and roots music bands.

The Ozark Hee-Haw/Various Artists "In Concert At The Old Sawmill Opry" (Dungeon Records, 1979-?) (LP)
(Produced by Pat Shikany
This album is a souvenir of the short-lived Old Sawmill Opry, a late-1970s variety show located in Notch, Missouri, near Branson and the better-known Silver Dollar City. They sang a mix of country, pop vocals and gospel, perhaps with a little less actual twang that one might imagine; the influence of poppy groups such as the Bellamy Brothers looms large over much of this album, which includes a dreadful rendition of the pop ballad, "Reunited," as well as a faithful reading of the Gatlin Brothers' hit, "All The Gold In California." As near as I can figure, none of these musicians -- who included Eddie Asher, Diana Houseman and Danny McMaster -- had any direct connection to the Hee-Haw TV show, although one of them, Max King, wound up in the house band at the Hee-Haw Theater, in the early '80s. I think the Sawmill show may have been bankrolled by Hee-Haw producer Tom Lutz, who later ran the short-lived Hee-Haw Theater from 1981-83. (It's possible it was the same venue, just with a name change after the Sawmill show folded -- anyone know for sure?) Anyway, the show's headliner around 1979-80 was '60s second-stringer Stan Hitchcock -- local gossip has it that in the early he scampered off back to Nashville and used the profits from the Sawmill show to help bankroll CMT (Country Music Television) but I can't really comment on that. Anyway, the property changed hands a bunch of times, was sold to a church group in the 1980s and apparently hasn't been a secular music venue since then. Eddie Asher was an Ozark local who had put out at least one album under his own name, and played in several regional venues, and Max King released an album as well.

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils - see artist discography

The Ozark Mountain Dewers "The Ozark Mountain Dewers" (Century Records, 196--?) (LP)
This band played at the Table Rock Opry, a 1960s-era tourist show located at the Dam Of The Lake, a state park near Branson, Missouri... Table Rock Opry was one of many venues owned by politician-turned-show-promoter Ralph A. Hunt, and the band featured guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Donnie Wright who was one of the early Branson stalwarts. Wright, who plays on this album, later joined Jim Weatherly's Ozark Jamboree, and though he toured nationally with artists such as Judy Lynn, his main base of operations was in the Ozarks.

The Ozark Quartet "In Concert Bull Shoals State Park" (John's Recording Studio Records, 19--?) (LP)
A solid, very traditional southern gospel vocal group from Mountain Home, Arkansas, with plenty of country twang surrounding their smooth, churchy harmonies. The backing band includes some of the guys from John's Recording Studio in Russellville, a popular regional studio that hosted both secular and religious clienteles, with steel player Zane Beck as the focal member, along with Mike Cox, who adds some nice Chet Atkins/Merle Travis-style riffs. The Quartet itself brought a few instrumentalists, notably bassist Tony Chastain and T. R. Chastain on piano, with the vocal group including lead singer Palmer Foley, Louis Knight singing bass, Clifford Morris (tenor) and Jerry Shew (baritone). The musical accompaniment ranges from somewhat haphazard to sweet and sincere; some of the steel passages are rich and subtle, though overall there doesn't seem to have been a very clear plan or explicit, pre-planned arrangements, and the sessions have a distinctly seat-of-the-pants feel... But I kind of find that appealing, especially combined with the occasional shakiness of Palmer Foley's distinctly middle-aged lead vocals, which add a "real person" charm that transcends the often too-perfect sound of the genre. Though the album title mentions them being "in concert" at a popular recreational spot near a dam on the White River, this is clearly a studio album... One assumes they had a gig at some bandshell at one of the many campgrounds, though this isn't made clear on the album itself. Anyway, this album has a nice authenticity to it, and plenty of country music twang in the mix, though probably not enough to win over secular folks who don't dig the old-fashioned vocal style.

Ozarks Quartet "Homecoming '76" (Ozark Sound Studio, 1976-?) (LP)
Although this was also recorded at John's Recording Studio, the feel of the album is much less compelling, with changes in the vocal lineup, as well as the backing band, notably with Zane Beck being replaced by steel player Jim Findlay, and generally a less twang-forward sound mix (though the twang is still there, just a bit deeper in the mix). Mostly it's the vocals that are disappointing; the group still included Palmer Foley as lead, with Louis Knight (bass vocals), Clifford Morris (tenor) but brought in a new baritone, credited simply as "Chuck," as well as bass guitarist Don Forbes and piano player Steve Bryant, who are photographed on the back cover as part of the band. At any rate, for whatever reasons, I found this record kinda goofy and less enchanting than Bull Shoals album; not sure which one came first, or whether the band got better or worse over time.

Ozark Renaissance "Ozark Renaissance" (1980)

Ozarks Country Jubilee "Singing The Gospel" (Ozarks Country Jubilee Records, 19--?)
One of numerous work-for-hire bands in the orbit of the Branson country scene, back in the pre-corporate olden days, this ensemble was, sadly, uncredited on this album of unsurprising gospel standards. Doubtless they were cast members in the Jubilee's regular stage shows, but who exactly played on this album remains a mystery. Just taking a wild guess, I'd say this was from the early 1980s, maybe around '81 or '82.

Ozarks Country Jubilee "Onstage" (Ozarks Country Jubilee Records, 19--?)

The Ozone Ramblers "River Rock" (Catfish Dancing, 1986) (LP)
(Produced by Johnny Drake & Greg Kane)
A country/rock band from Fort Madison, Iowa... All original material.

• More '70s Oddball Country Letter "P"

Hick Music Index