Oliver Buck June 25, 2008

Oliver Buck's songs reflect the universal themes of love, longing, and loss and channel hope and heartache in equal measure. Having moved around the country since boyhood, and having lived in places as far apart as Missoula, Montana and New York City, Providence and Lawrence, Kansas, Buck also sings about American roads--those of metal, macadam, and metaphor. Buck writes about people he's met (the inspiring and the unsavory), and also about his own personal struggles, tough choices, and ambitions as someone who walked away from a promising career in academia for a life in music.

Buck's music is an unusual concoction of vintage-tinted Americana, alt-country, and bluegrass with a strong undercurrent of blues evident in his rhythmic flatpicking style. His influences span the far reaches of old troubadour country, folk, blues, and rock and roll, and include Hank Williams, The Band, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, John Hiatt, Jimmie Rodgers, Townes Van Zandt, Del McCoury, Merle Haggard, The Grateful Dead, and Jason White & The Janglers.

The latest album, Prodigal Son (Cuyahoga Records, 2008), marks a sea change in sound and approach for Buck. It is the first release consisting mostly of his own songs; his first with a full backing band; and his first recorded and mixed entirely on analog reel-to-reel tape equipment with no computers or digital effects. Recorded not long after Buck returned home to Cleveland, Ohio after 15 years away, Prodigal Son is both a homecoming record and a reckoning of the mixed feelings that inevitably come from places left behind.

Prodigal Son follows 2007's solo album, Rust Belt Blues, which garnered considerable acclaim from reviewers in the U.S. and Europe. Buck will be a showcase artist in this year's North By Northeast (NXNE) Conference and Festival in Toronto, and was named a finalist in the 2007 Telluride Blues Festival Acoustic Blues Competition.

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