Photo by Alex Horvath
PERSONALITY
Jim Shaw, longtime associate of Buck Owens, takes a break in his expansive second-floor office.
Jim Shaw
I
By Lisa Kimble It is impossible to interview legendary Buckaroo Jim Shaw without being star-struck, even if the musician is disarming and easygoing. The expanse that is Shaw’s secondfloor office at Buck Owens Productions, is filled with Bakersfield Sound memorabilia collected over four decades of working side-by-side with the patron saint of country music. Although hardly angelic, Buck Owens was the king of the country music world in 1970, when the star-struck valley boy’s Cinderella story began to unfold.
136
Bakersfield Life
August 2011
Shaw, an Iowan transplant and engineering major at Fresno State, was a self-taught keyboardist. There weren’t a lot of country bands around back in 1969, in the rock-and-roll loving valley town, making Shaw something of a rarity. With a steady stream of gigs, he was playing clubs with his own country band by night, and going to class during the day. The following year, on a whim, Shaw asked friend Doyle Curtsinger if he could accompany him to Bakersfield to see Owens’ much-heralded, state-ofthe-art recording studio where Curtsinger was set to record. The chance meeting
Shaw has been a member of the Buckaroos since 1970.
Photo by Jaclyn Borowski
Buckaroo is Protector of Owens Legacy