Yoakam pays tribute to hero with new album

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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. country star Dwight Yoakam's new album pays tribute to his friend and mentor, Buck Owens.

"Dwight Sings Buck" finds Yoakam covering 15 songs from the late Owens' catalog. Owens, a country music pioneer and veteran of the "Hee-Haw" television series, died in March 2006. Yoakam decided to record the album after adding a set of Owens' songs to his concerts as a tribute.

"I had an interesting relationship with Buck -- part friendship, part sibling, part parent-child," says Yoakam, who met Owens in 1987 and recorded a chart-topping country duet with his idol, "The Streets of Bakersfield," in 1988.

"I had a lot of moments of feeling ambushed by memories that came at me from odd angles while I was making the album."

"Dwight Sings Buck" includes versions of Owens hits such as "Act Naturally," "Only You (Can Break My Heart)," "Cryin' Time" and "Love's Gonna Live Here." The video for the first single, "Close Up the Honky Tonks," was directed by former Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst.