Buck Page Was one of the Last Singing Cowboys

Buck Page was raised at Lost Cabin, Wyoming and has been a true cowboy all his life.
Since he was 11 years old he has been a singing cowboy.  Buck started in radio when he was

eleven years old playing string bass and the rhythm guitar with "The Valley Ranch Boys"

till he was fourteen. 

 

He then formed The Riders of The Purple Sage in 1936.

The Riders became NBC staff members for three years at KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA.
It was the very first radio station in history, doing five one hour radio shows per week coast
to coast.   The Riders then headed to New York to do WOR Radio coast to coast.  He has
been the lead guitar player for the Riders now going on 64 years.  Their songs  like "Ghost
Riders in the Sky," "Blue Shadows on the Trail", "Cool, Water", "Tumbling Tumble
Weeds," (both also done by the Sons of The Pioneers), "Have I Told You Lately That I
Love You", and "Don't Fence Me In" and many others became Western music standards.

Buck plays 21 instruments in all, including lead guitar, rhythm guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo,
plectrum banjo, 5 string banjo, ukulele, fiddle, violin, viola, cello, string bass, electric 6 string
bass, 4 string electric bass, steel guitar and drums.  He is a member of the screen actors guild,
The American Federation of TV and Radio Actor's and a life time member of L.A. Local 47
of the American Federation of Musicians ad AGVA since he was 17 years old.  Since 1940
Buck has been a Gretch Guitar artist and has been endorsed by the top notch guitar company.
Buck has studied with George Smith and Barney Kessel and done recording sessions with
Spade Cooley, Glen Miller, Buck Owens, Lefty Frizzell, Stewart Hamblen, Leon McCuliff,
and many many of the greats.

Buck is playing the guitar on the original recording of the theme song for  "Bonanza" and he
is on guitar in the "Seventy-Seven Sunset Strip" theme song and he played on "Tales of Wells
Fargo,"  "Wagon Train,"  "Laramie,"  "Checkmate" and others, giving him a great per-
spective on the story of the early days of television.

He was good friends and worked with Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, Montie Montana,
Patsy Montana, Eddie Dean, Cliffy Stone and many of the great singing cowboys,"  His ex-
perience also cuts through the early days of the movies when his band would play on stage
before the showing of movies like "All Along the Santa Fe Trail" with Earl Flynn.

Buck worked with Audie Murphy and Rory Calhoun pictures, and he was in Spartacus, King
Richard and the Crusaders, The Eddie Cantor Story, Black Shield of Falworth, Gypsy, Sign
of the Pagan, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, The Boy from Oklahoma, The Silver Chalice,
Destry Rides Again, A Star is Born with Judy Garland.  Buck has recorded with the likes of
Buck Owens, Benny Goodman, Wynn Stewart, Stuart Hamblen, Leon McAuliffe from the
Texas Playboys, Bobby Bare, Cliffie Stone, played with the Glen Miller Band for the Glen
Miller Story and many many others.

In 1964, the Baldwin Piano Company hired him as a consultant.  In June 1965, he went to work
full time for Baldwin and stayed with them through August 1969.  While there, together with
their engineers, he conceived and developed the Supersound Amps, models C-1, C-2, B-1 &
B-2 and the Exterminator, (their answer to the Vox Super Beatle).  Buck also conceived the
idea for electrifying the Classic Guitar, the transducer pickups that are sill in use, originated
with these early prototypes models.  Buck says, "We threw away a couple of baskets full be-
fore such contemporary artists as Charlie Byrd, Carlos Montoya, Willie Nelson, and many
others were satisfied with the sound.  Willie Nelson to this day still use the Prismatone guitar
pick-up on his famous guitar "Trigger" and the Baldwin Supersound Amp.

At 82 years young the Buck doesn't stop here.  He is still touring and doing dates from clubs,
to rodeos, the Gene Autry's Golden Boot Awards, Willie Nelson's picknicks to fairs and
private parties, gigs in Los Angeles and around the country.

As a real cowboy, Buck has been in the racing quarter horse business and has owned some
of the finest quarter horses in the country.  Known as a top breeder in the business...he has
been a member of the Rancheros Visitadores Horse Back Riding Club along with President
Ronald Regan, Governor Duekmajian, and Art Linkletter.  Buck has also been a horse man
in many movies and as a young boy he rodeoed and has owned a horse ranch most of his life.
When you enter his den you are surrounded by all his cowboy momentous, such as chaps,
saddles, ropes, bridles, and pictures with presidents and folks like Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash
and Kristofferson.