Albert C. "Buck" Griffin (February 23, 1923 – February 14, 2009) was an American country musician and songwriter. He was a popular performer live and on radio, though he never scored a hit on record, and was compared to Hank Williams and Conway Twitty.
Griffin was born 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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
From1965 Griffin worked as a Driller in the Kansas and Oklahoma oilfields as well as becoming a licensed pilot, owning several airplanes. He was a major force behind the building of an airstrip south of Hoisington, Kansas. He still wrote and published songs and occasionally recorded. In the 1970s his chronic asthma became a barrier to performing. He died of complications to emphysema on February 14, 2009 in Sayre, Oklahoma. (INFO edited from All Music & Wikipedia)
2 comments:
Could Re Up This One Sir. Thanks. H.J.
For “ Buck Griffin – Let's Elope Baby (1995 Bear Family) (FLAC)” go here:
https://www.imagenetz.de/dZQUq
1 Pretty Lou
2 Girl In 1209
3 You'll Never Come Back
4 Stutterin' Papa - Griffin, Buck
5 Watchin' The 7:10 Roll By - Griffin, Buck
6 Broken Heart With Alimony
7 Jessie Lee - Griffin, Buck
8 Bow My Back - Griffin, Buck
9 Old Bee Tree
10 Every Night
11 The Party
12 Little Dan
13 Neither Do I
14 Cochise
15 Go-Stop-Go
16 Bawlin' And Squallin' - Griffin, Buck
17 Let's Elope Baby
18 It Don't Make No Never Mind - Griffin, Buck
19 Meadowlark Boogie - Griffin, Buck
20 Rollin' Tears
21 One Day After Pay Day
22 Going Home All Alone
23 Lookin' For The Green
24 Next To Mine
25 Lord Give Me Strength
26 First Man To Stand On The Moon
27 Twenty Six Steps
There's stuff on this 28-song CD that would be loved by fans of Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Elvis Presley, Red Foley, and even Benny Goodman, and most of it should've been hits for Buck Griffin 40-some years ago. He runs the gamut from hard country to Western swing to a restrained but valid form of rockabilly, and he's good at all of it. The disc is rounded out with four beautifully sung, utterly sincere and compelling religious numbers, of which "Next to Mine" is as fine as any of the country numbers here. All taken from his Lin, MGM, Metro and Holiday Inn recordings.
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