The story of Korn's Jonathan Davis and a Buck Owens guitar - By N.L. Belardes

Jonathan Davis and Buddy Owens at Bakersfield's Crystal Palace
image by Joe S.

If I were a musician I'd want one. It's patriotic, colorful and a fine piece of craftmanship. I'd like to call it a Buck Special...

Buck Owens had one of his signature red, white and blue guitars made for Jonathan Davis of Korn at the beginning of 2006. He wanted to give it to Davis at that time. “That night Jonathan came in for dinner, but Buck was sick,” said an anonymous source. “So they waited for the right time…” It was a basic Buddy Owens night singing Buck Owens classics at Bakersfield’s Crystal Palace. “There was good energy, the whole Davis family was in there, brothers and step-brothers.”

“Toward the end of the show Buddy got him up there. Jonathan Davis said nice things about Buck Owens and Bakersfield. He mentioned that he always dreamed of getting one of those guitars as a musician.”

And he did.

Then Buddy tried to get him to sing but Davis wouldn’t do it—he politely refused. His thanks were really brief and he got off the stage.

The anonymous source indicates it may be a rumor that Davis brought guitar to the airport. He was flying to New York to be on MTV’s Unplugged. Was he going to use the trademark Buck Owens guitar on MTV’s classic show?

It wasn’t in a protective case and so he couldn’t take the guitar on the airplane…

Is this story true of Korn and Buck Owens true?

Maybe one of the readers of this blog knows the answer…


MTV Unplugged "Freak on a Leash" (Featuring Amy Lee)
Better quality MTV format

*Korn's Unplugged CD hits shelves on March 6th. You can pre-order here. More info on the unplugged gig featuring covers of the Cure and Radiohead. Track listing.

Bakersfield band Soulajar: Big 2007 CD release at the Spotlight Theatre - By N.L. Belardes

Soulajar at the Spotlight

This was by far my favorite Soulajar performance. The Spotlight Theatre was packed. I had a full stomach. Joel Jacob opened the show and kicked his snare like a mad dog. Oh, and the Ska King was absent, which meant Big Ray of Bakotopia was the emcee.

By the time this story posts, Soulajar will still be getting their groove on down at the Spotlight...


Joel Jacob rocks the Spotlight Theatre

Let's start with Joel Jacob. He grew up partly in the South Pacific. I think I could hear the island influences, the island reggae riffs in his crooning. Yet he is more than just an island boy with a guitar strapped to his side. He's jazzy, hip-hop, funky, funny...



He sat and kicked a bass drum and snare while jamming on the guitar, singing, and stopping to blow some harmonica. That was just one song. He mixed it up here and there and I dug the past KELLY 95.3 winner's hip-hop the most. The crowd roared approval.



But then the mothership landed.


Close encounters with Soulajar

The lights dimmed. Blue sparkles of lights emanated from the stage. This was a full-on Soulajar production and I even heard someone from the crowd joke, "Aliens!" Well it was what Soulajar wanted anyway: a close encounter with their fans... and they did. Right away I jammed down to the front. I had an excuse: I had a camera in my hands. But really I just wanted an up-close peek of how these improvisational wizards of jazzody could rock (When in doubt with a word to describe the unexplainable complexities of improvisational jazz, just make up a word like "jazzody").







Seriously, I dug the deep soul voice of their guest, Jim Ranger. He hid beneath his hat, chomped his gum, sipped his water, then belted out some boisterous vocals that melted every girl in the audience.

If only he wouldn't have hid behind that hat.



Now, Soulajar is really made up of three core members: Brian Boozer, Ryan Fergon, and Greg Bettis. Guests at the Spotlight gig included Jim Ranger and keyboardist...? Didn't know his name. It wasn't Stacey Ericsson. Might have been Chris Pedersen.



As I mentioned, this was my favorite Soulajar performance. It wasn't just the cool lights shining up the scene. It wasn't just the packed house. It wasn't simply the smoky mood. It was the music of Soulajar. How can you go wrong with a song like "Jagerfunken", an instrumental with so much musical complexity and spirit that you wish you could just melt onto the stage with the sound and foggy lights...



More happy notes included I finally got my copy of the Soulajar EP that I thought would never come, and I got to see Big Ray, who is one cool cat with his band The Fuzzy Pink Slip-Ons...


Big Ray emcee talking to the audience and throwing out the bako-goods