Gary Buck, Canadian country music icon
Hyfler/Rosner
October 16, 2003 Thursday Final Edition
HEADLINE: Canadian country music icon
DATELINE: KITCHENER, Ont.
One of Canadian country music's most renowned and versatile personalities
has died.
Gary Buck died Tuesday in a Didsbury, Alta., hospital after a battle with
cancer. He was 63.
Buck enjoyed a long career in country music as a songwriter, performer,
producer, publisher, promoter and founder of the Canadian Country Music Hall
of Fame.
Born in 1940 in Thessalon, Ont., he was raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.,
and later made his home in Kitchener from where he founded the hall of fame
in 1989.
In recent years, he lived in Didsbury and maintained offices in Calgary and
Nashville.
Buck began performing in his teens, honing his skills on radio and stages in
and around Sault Ste. Marie.
"Gary gave up a lot of his own music to make the museum happen. It was his
one great obsession and remains a tribute to all Canadian country artists,"
said Canadian artist Ken Danby, who painted a number of portraits for the
Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.
By his early 20s, Buck had embarked on a career that paid immediate
dividends when he scored a No. 1 hit on the U.S. Cashbox Country charts with
Happy to Be Unhappy. He was only the third Canadian to earn a spot on the
Billboard Country Hit charts, following country legends Hank Snow and Myrna
Lorrie.
Buck's recording career spanned five decades. He had dozens of hit singles
and numerous albums released in Canada and the United States on various
labels, including RCA, Capitol and his own Broadland Records.
His most notable Canadian chart hits included The Weatherman, Break the News
to Lisa, Mr. Brown and Wayward Woman of the World - all of which reached No.
1 on the RPM charts in the late 1960s and '70s.
His recording success led to his own TV show, which aired over five seasons
out of Kitchener's CKCO studio.
Beginning in the 1960s, Buck produced albums for many of Canada's most
popular country artists, including Dick Damron, the Mercey Brothers, Family
Brown, Tommy Hunter, Al Cherny, Orval Prophet, Dallas Harms and Wayne
Rostad.
He also produced albums for U.S. country artists such as George Hamilton IV,
Billie Jo Spears, Johnny Duncan and Gene Watson.
As head of Beechwood Music, the publishing arm of Capitol Records in Canada,
Buck was instrumental in seeing many of Canada's top country songs gain
prominence, including Anne Murray's monster hit Snowbird.