In January 1958, encouraged by Dusty Rhodes, his original Bakersfield benefactor, Buck moved to Puyallup, Washington, a Tacoma suburb. It turned out to be another educational experience. He took over a third interest in 250-watt radio station KAYE, 1450 on the dial. "If you had a really good radio," he says today, "you could pick it up in the station parking lot." More importantly, he had a chance to learn the radio business from the ground up. He worked as a disc jockey, sold ads for the station, and performed in the area.

Buck’s stillborn Capitol recording career left him philosophical, and he wrote Ken Nelson a letter offering to forget the contract. "He turned my letter over and wrote on the back, ‘I still want to record you and I still like what you do.’" On a visit home to Bakersfield, Owens made a side trip to Capitol and asked Ken Nelson if he could record his next session with fiddle and steel. On October 9, 1958, he cut four original songs, including the ballad "Second Fiddle," in the "shuffle" style popularized by Ray Price in songs like "Crazy Arms." By the spring of 1959, it had reached #24 on the Billboard charts.

Despite this positive sign, Buck remained in Washington, where by 1959 he was hosting his own live TV show over KTNT in Tacoma. Among the local talent featured was a local house-wife-turned singer named Loretta Lynn. Dusty Rhodes introduced him to a teenaged fiddler from Tumwater, Washington by the name of Donald Eugene Ulrich. Better known as Don Rich, he would become Buck’s musical alter-ego and a major component of his best recordings.

The success of "Second Fiddle" led to another session, this one yielding "Under Your Spell Again" his first Top 10 record, in the fall of 1959. In June of 1960, with "Under Your Spell" a success, Buck divested himself of his holdings in Washington and returned to Bakersfield. It would remain his permanent base of operations.

Photos 1|2