|
|
Chanteur Country US né Albert Clayton Griffin, le 23 Février 1923 à Corsicana (Texas). Buck Griffin perd son père à l'âge de 7 ans, puis sa famille part en Oklahoma où il travaille à la ferme. Il apprend la guitare à 12 ans et forme un groupe Country à 14. Un an plus tard, il part à Kansas City où il creuse des fossés pour les pipelines le jour, jouant dans les Honky Tonk le soir pour faire bouillir la marmite, s'étant marié en 1943.En 1950 il a une émission sur WKY d'Oklahoma City, sous le nom de Chuck Wyman et enregistre sa première session pour Joe Leonard à Dallas au studio WFAA début 1954. Après un intermède dans une émission télé NBC au Kansas au début des sixties, il part à Erick (Oklahoma), où il était encore dans le milieu des années quatre-vingt-dix. Buck Griffin est décédé le 14 Février 2009.
Buck Griffin has never made
it as a star in country music, but not for lack of ability or talent. Described
in his prime as a cross between
Hank Williams and
Red Foley, he was a charismatic performer and a prodigious songwriter
who has simply failed to get the right breaks or the right contract at the right
time.
Albert C. Griffin was born on February 23, 1923, in Corsicana, TX, and raised in
Oklahoma and Missouri; he inherited the nickname
Buck from his father. He took up the guitar around age 12
and formed his first band with three other boys a couple of years later, with
Griffin singing most of the lead
parts at dances and school assemblies. Music had to take second place to earning
a living, and Griffin made his
digging pipeline ditches in Kansas. Eventually he made his way to the oil fields
and became a driller, and it was life in the oil fields and time spent at the
surrounding honky tonks that pulled
Griffin back into music. He began playing nightly and eventually got a
program of his own (as Chuck Wyman, a name owned by the station) on WKY.
The early '50s looked like a promising period for a new generation of country
singers -- what's more, the death of
Hank Williams on New Year's Day 1953 had left a huge gap in country
music that was waiting to be filled.
Griffin looked like the man to fill it. He came out of the honky tonks
much as
Williams had, and his songs had a direct simplicity of expression and
a complexity in their execution that recalled
Williams at his best. He had a strong voice and a charismatic
persona, wrote songs, was building a serious local following, and seemed to be
haunted by none of the personal demons that had blighted
Williams' later life.
Griffin came to the attention of
Joe Leonard, the owner of a radio station in Gainesville, TX, who had acquired
the Lin Records label and saw an opportunity to make the singer/songwriter a
star and both of them some money. He signed
Griffin and recorded him at
Dallas radio station WFAA in early 1954. His earliest sides, "It Don't Make No
Nevermind" and "Meadowlark Boogie," were both hybrids of hillbilly and Western
swing that failed to click. A series of follow-up sessions in September of that
year yielded some more advanced sides and sounds that fell, similarly, on deaf
ears as far as radio stations were concerned. On stage, by contrast, he was as
popular as ever and appeared on the same bills with the likes of
Red Foley and
Marty Robbins.
There were some great records, too. "Bawlin' and Squallin'" mixed the best
elements of honky tonk and Western swing effortlessly (members of
Bob Wills' band played on this side and the rest of that session),
with a breezy delivery that rural rock & roll fans, at least, should have loved.
And "Let's Elope Baby" should have been a mainstream country classic.
What success Griffin found during
this period was as a songwriter. His records may not have been getting played,
but the songs on them, most notably "Goin' Home All Alone" and "Let's Elope
Baby," got covered by Wade Ray
and
Janis Martin ("The Female Elvis") respectively; she turned "Let's
Elope Baby" into a harder-rocking side, which was more commercial than
Griffin's decidedly backwoods
approach. Meanwhile, in early 1956,
Griffin was signed to the Big D Jamboree in Dallas, a major showcase for
country talent, and MGM Records picked up the distribution of his Lin Records
sides.
MGM was looking to get in on the rock & roll boom and apparently saw
Griffin as a potential rockabilly
crossover star, in the manner of his Lin Records stablemate
Andy Starr or future MGM rock & roller/country star
Conway Twitty. Some of
Griffin's songs did, indeed, have a hard, almost rockabilly-type edge.
But he was too Southern in his sound and the sensibilities of his lyrics to find
much appeal outside of the rural South, and many of the songs he was doing
during this period were too serious for the kids he was supposed to be aiming
at.
The MGM deal ended in the early '60s, after which
Griffin cut songs for the Holiday
Inn label, none of which sold. He was almost out of the music business by 1963,
making ends meet by selling Bibles. He continued to write and publish songs into
the late '60s, and recorded occasionally. The onset of chronic asthma sidelined
him as a performer, and since the 1970s, he's been content to sit of the
sidelines, savoring his early success as a songwriter and hoping for more
interest in his newer numbers.
https://www.hillbilly-music.com/artists/story/index.php?id=13555
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Griffin
Talents : Vocals, Guitar
Style musical : Traditional Country, Rockabilly, Rock 'n' Roll
One Day After Payday (1954) Bawlin' And Squallin' (Over You) (1955) STUTTERIN' PAPA (1956) Watchin' The 7:10 Roll By (1956) JESSIE LEE (1957) FIRST MAN TO STAND ON THE MOON (1961) PRETTY LOU (1962) |
|
Years in activity :
1910 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 2000 | 10 | 20 |
DISCOGRAPHY
78 t., Singles & EP
10/1954 | 78 t. LIN 1005 (US) | It Don't Make No Never Mind / Meadowlark Boogie |
10/1954 | SP LIN 45-1005 (US) | It Don't Make No Never Mind / Meadowlark Boogie |
10/1954 | 78 t. LIN 1007 (US) | Rollin' Tears / One Day After Payday |
10/1954 | SP LIN 45-1007 (US) | Rollin' Tears / One Day After Payday |
12/1954 | 78 t. LIN 1008 (US) | Going Home All Alone / Lookin' Fot The Green |
12/1954 | SP LIN 45-1008 (US) | Going Home All Alone / Lookin' Fot The Green |
08/1955 | 78 t. LIN 1014 (US) | Buck GRIFFIN with The HAPPY SINGERS - Next To Mine / Lord Give Me Strength |
08/1955 | SP LIN 45-1014 (US) | Buck GRIFFIN with The HAPPY SINGERS - Next To Mine / Lord Give Me Strength |
10/1955 | 78 t. LIN 1015 (US) | Bawlin' And Squallin' (Over You) / Let's Elope, Baby |
10/1955 | SP LIN 45-1015 (US) | Bawlin' And Squallin' (Over You) / Let's Elope, Baby |
12/1955 | 78 t. LIN 1016 (US) | Go-Stop-Go / Cochise |
12/1955 | SP LIN 45-1016 (US) | Go-Stop-Go / Cochise |
01/1956 | 78 t. LIN 1018 (US) | Little Dan / Neither Do I |
01/1956 | SP LIN 45-1018 (US) | Little Dan / Neither Do I |
06/1956 | SP MGM K12284 (US) | Stutterin' Papa / Watchin' The 7:10 Roll By |
03/1957 | SP MGM K12439 (US) | Bow My Back / Old Bee Tree |
12/1957 | SP MGM K12597 (US) | Jessie Lee / You'll Never Come Back |
11/1958 | SP METRO K20007 (US) | The Party / Every Night |
05/1961 | SP LIN 5030-45 (US) | First Man To Stand On The Moon / 26 Steps |
04/1962 | SP HOLIDAY INN 109 (US) | Pretty Lou / Girl In 1209 |
1963 | SP ROTARY 459 (US) | Too Many Honky Tonks / Seven Lonely Rooms |
1963 | SP ROTARY 460 (US) | I Can't Keep My Wheels On The Ground / Flashing Lights, Wine And Me |
1964 | SP ROTARY 461 (US) | One Day After Payday / No More Fun |
1964 | SP ROTARY 462 (US) | Greener Pastures / Green River Towns |
1967 | SP FOUNDATION 10415 (US) | Viet Nam / Drinkin' With The Blues |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Unissued Track
195? | MGM unissued - (Bear Family CD 15811 (#6)) | Broken Heart With Alimony |
Albums
1961 | LP 12" LONDON EB 13 (CAN) |
Buck Griffin Sings - Little Dan / Neither Do I / Cochise / Bawlin' And Squallin' / Let's Elope Baby / It Don't Make No Never Mind / Meadowlark Boogie / Rollin' Tears / One Day After Payday / Next To Mine / Lord Give Me Strength |
|
1990 | CD DOMINO DLP-1007 (US) |
The Party - The Party / Watchin' The 7:10 Roll By / Every Night / Bow My Back / Let's Elope, Baby / Bawlin' And Squallin' (Over You) / I Can't Keep My Wheels On The Ground / First Man To Stand On The Moon / Pretty Lou / Stutterin' Papa / Old Bee Tree / Little Dan / 26 Steps / You'll Never Come Back / Jessie Lee / Meadowlark Boogie / It Don't Make No Never Mind |
|
1995 | CD BEAR FAMILY BCD 15811 (GER) | LET'S ELOPE BABY - Pretty Lou / Girl In 1209 / You'll Never Come Back / Stutterin' Papa / Watchin' The 7:10 Roll By / Broket Heart With Alimony / Jessie Lee / Bow My Back / Old Bee Tree / Every Night / The Party / Little Dan / Neither Do I / Cochise / Go-Stop-Go / Bawlin' And Squallin' / Let's Elope Baby / It Don't Make No Never Mind / Meadowlark Boogie / Rollin' Tears / One Day After Payday / Going Home All Alone / Lookin' For The Green / Next To Mine / Lord Give Me Strength / Sorry I Never Knew / First Man To Stand On The Moon / Twenty Six Steps |
© Rocky Productions 9/01/2024