25 Country Albums You Need to Hear (Even If You Hate Country Music)

6. CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT
Buck Owens and His Buckaroos
''How do you get to Carnegie Hall?'' The answer used to be ''Practice, practice, practice,'' but this giddy 1966 live album offered a different answer: ''Via Bakersfield.'' Owens was never one of country's more artistically ambitious practitioners; all he aimed to do was offer pure fun, or, better yet, pure heartache converted into pure fun. And he and his famous band deliver here with ''I've Got a Tiger by the Tail,'' ''Act Naturally'' (which had recently been turned into a rock hit by the Beatles), and even a Bakersfield-fried ''Twist and Shout.''