Omnivore Recordings To Release Buck Owens’ ‘Country Singer’s Prayer’

Omnivore Recordings, in conjunction with the Buck Owens Estate, will release Country Singer’s Prayer, Buck Owens’ final recorded Capitol album from 1975, which has remained unissued until now. The project will release Aug. 17.

By late 1975, Owens’ contract with Capitol was due to expire at the end of the year, and he and the Buckaroos readied one final album for the label in November 1975. While several of Buck’s later Capitol recordings had not been topping the charts as before, his last single for them, “Country Singer’s Prayer,” failed to even make a showing. The label shelved this final album, and assigned the selection number to what was ultimately Buck’s last Capitol release, Best of Buck Owens, Vol. 6, which did include the last two singles originally intended for Country Singer’s Prayer: “Battle of New Orleans” and the title track.

While Buck later re-recorded some of these songs with producer Norro Wilson in Nashville after signing to Warner Bros. Records, the original recordings produced at Buck’s Bakersfield studio with the Buckaroos remained in the vault.

Taken from the original LP master tapes, in what was the intended sequence, Country Singer’s Prayer also includes the B-sides to Buck’s final two singles from the unissued album.

New liner notes were written by Scott B. Bomar, featuring interviews with longtime Buckaroos piano player Jim Shaw and Robert John Jones (a.k.a. Rocky Topp), who co-wrote “Country Singer’s Prayer.”

Track Listing:
1. John Law
2. Love Don’t Make The Bars
3. He Ain’t Been Out Bowling With The Boys
4. Drifting Away
5. The Battle Of New Orleans
6. Country Singer’s Prayer
7. California Okie
8. A Different Kind Of Sad
9. It’s Been A Long, Long Time
10. How’s Everything
11. Run Him To The Round House Nellie (You Might Corner Him There)
12. Meanwhile Back At The Ranch