Critic's Review
Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide
Of course Buddy Ebsen is best-known for his role as Jed Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies television program, which ran for nine seasons on the CBS-TV network beginning in September of 1962. Although Says Howdy (1965) was the only long-player that Ebsen released, the veteran stage and screen actor had been an ASCAP staff songwriter in the late 1940s and early 1950s prior to becoming a household name in the Fess Parker-led cast of Walt Disney's Davy Crockett. While the songs that Ebsen chose for the project are chock full of classic country music standards, the syrupy sweet arrangements and prominent backing vocal chorales sadly date the material, and ultimately denigrate Ebsen's performance -- not that he is Sinatra, or even trying to be. With lyrics such as those featured in the opener -- "Howdy, howdy/looks like it might get cloudy/But come right in/The coffee pot is hot" -- no one will mistake him for "ol' blue eyes." However, there is a distinct warmth and cozy charm woven into his interpretations of well-worn pop standards such as "Bonaparte's Retreat," "You Are My Sunshine," or any one of the five Hank Williams' covers that provide nearly half of the album's track list. Especially worthwhile are Williams' whimsical "Countrified," and "Everything's Okay," as well as the oddly somber "Men With Broken Hearts," which closes the disc on a decidedly down note. There are a few numbers that almost typify the homespun persona that Ebsen pulled off so effortlessly. Primary among these are Eddy Arnold's chart-topper "Don't Rob Another Man's Castle," the sweet "Keep A-Thinkin' Pretty," and Jimmy Bond's "Tennessee Walking Horse." In 2003, Collectors' Choice Music issued Says Howdy on CD sporting newly inked liner notes, as well as reproductions of the original LP jacket.
