This is an obscure Buck Owens collection of very early material, and contains two hits, "You're Fer Me," which reached number ten on the Billboard country charts, and "House Down the Block," which reached number 24. Rather than the killer guitar sound of Don Rich that became the trademark of his sound, these tunes all feature pedal steel and fiddle in the prominent place in the recording studio. That this is his early material dating from the '50s shouldn't be off-putting at all. It's compelling, raw, unvarnished Owens. His songwriting and interpretive skills as a singer are already in full evidence. He was dedicated to the Hank Williams approach to songwriting and to recording by keeping it as simple as possible, but there was something in California that set it apart, the looseness of the instrumentation and relaxed tempos and delivery, the humor in the words, and the willingness to embrace elements of hillbilly boogie in his writing make these sides irresistible to fans. Beginners should start with one of the Capitol greatest-hits compilations available on CD.