Capitol
was set to release
Country Singer's Prayer
, the album intended to close out
Buck Owens
' contract with the label, in 1975 but they scrapped it at the last minute, choosing to release
Best of Buck Owens, Vol. 6
instead. Nobody knows the precise reason why the album was shelved, but it's not hard to surmise that it's all due to
Buck
's collapse on the charts. "The Battle of New Orleans" couldn't get past 51 and "Country Singer's Prayer" didn't chart at all, which meant there wasn't much incentive for
to release the album, considering that
Owens
was departing in a matter of months. Truth be told, there wasn't much incentive for
to make the album any better than it needed to be, either. Still reeling from the 1974 death of his partner,
Don Rich
,
didn't put much effort into the album, co-writing just one song -- the barroom weeper "He Ain't Been Out Bowling with the Boys" -- and generally strolling through a collection of cheeky country-rockers and amiable ballads. Much of the production is bedecked in flairs that smack of the mid-'70s -- his version of
Johnny Horton
's standard "The Battle of New Orleans" bounces along to a garish, funky beat; "Country Okie" is oversaturated with fiddles -- and while those period flourishes are generic, they have their charms, as the members of
' house band are pros and he delivers respectable, if not impassioned, performances. All this adds up to an enjoyable, albeit slightly forgettable, record -- the kind of album that was justifiably abandoned at the time, yet carries some modest charm as an archival release. [All of the tracks on
were previously released on the
Bear Family
box
Tall Dark Stranger
.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine