Shit on country all you like...make fun of Bakersfield all you want.
But you have to admit Buck Owens was a f***ing genius.
I really haven't given two shits for country music since the early/mid 90s. But I've got a huge soft spot for older country, and especially western music. Buck, Dwight and then Gary Allen all did Bakersfield proud. Pat Green, Jack Ingram, Charlie (RIP) and Bruce Robison have all tried to carry the torch for singer/songwritters like Guy Clark, Kris Kristofferson, and some long haired hippy named Willie in Texas. Nashville sold it's soul the day they recogized Alan Jackson and George Strait for Murder on Music Row.
My favorite line of all time, in any genre though is, "And then he'd hold it a little bit longer." It's in Gary Allen's What Would Willie Do? The singer suggests he would take a deep breath and after a missed beat on the next line suggests....'And then he would hold it a bit longer" and it just cracks me up.