I was watching Chris Schiflett’s Shred With Shifty thing with Brad Paisley (because he’s a terrific guitar player, even if I can’t bear country music) and during it Mr. Paisley makes the assertion that Buck Owens and his Buckaroos Carnegie Hall Concert record is the best country album ever made. I am unfamiliar with the record (did I mention I can’t bear country music?) so I stuck it on my phone before I went for a run yesterday and listened to the whole thing. He’s not wrong, it’s great.

The weird thing is the presentation and the banter and the skits most remind me of a Zappa concert album, and I’m fairly confident FZ stole some of his schtick from here. (Or maybe it reminds me of Cory Wong, if you want a reference from this millennium). And the music (which, please note, is still unbearable country music) has an electric 60s pop jangle to it, they medley up all their hits and aren’t afraid to deploy a couple of covers. The playing throughout is staggeringly good, and as Mr. Paisley points out at that point it would have just been a stereo mixdown - no punch-ins to fix mistakes later on.

It’s well worth 50 minutes of your time.