Our Daily Dead

Doyle Holly, bass guitarist for Buck Owens’ band the Buckaroos, is dead at age 70.

From the LA Times: “Doyle Holly, the bass guitarist for Buck Owens’ band the Buckaroos during its hit-making heyday in the 1960s, has died in Nashville. He was 70.”

“Holly, who died Saturday after a battle with prostate cancer, had been hospitalized Dec. 17.”

“He took over the bassist’s spot in the Buckaroos after Owens had said farewell to another band member who was starting a career of his own: Merle Haggard.”

“Holly spent 1963 to 1971 in one of the anchor positions in the Buckaroos’ rhythm section, a period in which Owens recorded most of his biggest hits, including ‘Act Naturally,’ ‘Together Again’ and ‘I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail.’ Another hit, ‘Love’s Gonna Live Here,’ topped the country singles chart for 16 weeks at the end of 1963. Owens even went to No. 1 with ‘Buckaroo,’ a 1965 instrumental that featured the band widely considered one of the best and most influential ensembles in country music history.”

And Rockabillyhall.com had this to say: ‘”Carnegie Hall Concert,” in some respects, represented the high water mark for Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. Owens and his crew were only the second country band to record a live album there (following Flatt & Scruggs’ lead in 1962, and the album captures a flawless performance from the group. ‘

‘Although Holly says - perhaps surprisingly - that the album is a little more laid back than a typical Buckaroos show of that era, he says that the group pulled back a bit on the reins for the Carnegie Hall shows since they knew that the performances were being taped. ‘

‘”We were nervous about being recorded,” says Holly. “When you’re doing a tape, you don’t want to make any mistakes. We were probably more concerned with making the record than with entertaining the audience. I asked Buck if he wanted to do comedy and he said, ‘No, just play everything straight.’ Then it got back into the groove of a regular show, and we started doing the comedy and the impressions.”‘

‘And Holly took some pride in the fact that the records he played on have had such a lasting influence on later performers including The Eagles, the Desert Rose Band and The Derailers.’

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Doyle Holly, Buck Owens, Buckaroos, dead, Merle Haggard, Flatt & Scruggs, Carnegie Hall, The Eagles, Desert Rose Band, The Derailers

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 at 9:57 am and is filed under ODD Guests, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.