Profile

Email this article

Singing of cow pies and passing gas

By David Moye

January 30, 2006

San Diego--Blink 182, P.O.D. and Jewel get more publicity but a singing turkey farmer named Buck Howdy is quickly becoming one of San Diego’s most popular musical acts, especially for San Diegans less than 11 years old.

Howdy hails from Highland County, Virginia, where he owns a turkey ranch. However, he spends half the time in San Diego County writing and recording a series of albums in the singing cowboy vein, with titles like Skidaddle, Campfire Christmas and his most recent release, Giddyap!, which was recently named one of the top five kiddie recordings by the American Library Association.

It’s quite a coup since Howdy’s lyrics aren’t always politically correct. A few years ago, he had a Christmas novelty hit with “Cowpies For Christmas,” a ditty suggesting that Santa no longer hands out coal to naughty kids, preferring to smack them with some bovine bowel movements instead.

Howdy got his start back in 2002 when he was giving concerts at schools and soon discovered by San Diego-based Prairie Dog Entertainment. Execs appreciated Howdy’s western music—definitely not country—and signed him to a deal that has resulted in him becoming one of the biggest selling artists of any genre based on internet sales alone.

He’s helping his own cause by hosting a show called Cow Pie Radio three times a week on XM Satellite Radio and is on a mission to bring children’s music out of the Barney ghetto. And he is in talks to create a TV series based on his music and straight-shooting cowboy wisdom.

“That purple dinosaur is a pox on kids music. People think that’s what it all sounds like. It’s like this: Family music doesn’t get broken down in genres. It can be rock, pop, cowboy, folk but that makes it hard for the music industry types to know what to do with it.”

Currently, Howdy is trying a new method to attract a new audience to his music with something called “Pass The Buck,” where he offers free downloads for ten of the 14 songs on Giddyap! for free at BuckHowdy.com, provided the listener promises to share the tunes with two other people (and those people have to do the same).

He admits the deal is similar to the way Costco promotes its snack food by handing out samples but adds, “If we could put samples of cheese logs through the internet, we’d really have a winner.”

Despite the impossibility of that happening in the near future, Howdy is happy with the results of his “Pass The Buck” plan. The program started last week and he’s already receiving thousands of hits from fans; the response is increasing exponentially.

Still, he remains humble by admitting “Katie Couric hasn’t called,” but adds that Willie Nelson and Kenny Loggins are fans.

Regardless of how successful Howdy’s plan will be, he is still attracting fans in high places. Later this year, he will perform at the White House Easter Egg Hunt.

It marks the second time in his career he’s played the hunt and it’s amazing he was invited back—considering the first time he played the gig back in 2004, he reportedly hid a plastic cowpie somewhere in the White House.

Although Howdy spends at least half the year in San Diego, he admits that the city hasn’t influenced his music that much. “It’s like that old ad for Salem cigarettes: ‘You can take the cigarette out of Salem but you can’t take Salem out of the cigarette.’ Well, you can take Buck out of the country but you can’t take the country out of Buck.”

--------------------