I am so glad Richard Buckner has a beard again.
If any man’s face belongs behind a beard, it’s Buckner’s. For starters, he’s a large man. Not overweight or anything, just burly. And he’s got that voice – husky and full. (Though it sounds far less imposing in conversation, actually.) Judging by the picture (perhaps not the most flattering), his gray, unruly whiskers just fit a man whose music connotes all the sorrow and depression of a back-country dive bar. This, my friends, is the stuff beards are made of.
Everyone has their reasons to grow a beard. I let mine go a few years ago when I went on a fantasy football winning streak (probably not why Buckner grew his), and I haven’t shaved it since. Mine comes in a little brown, a little red and with a serious cowlick near my right upper jaw if I go awhile without trimming.
At this point, I’m hesitant to get rid of it. I remember once when I was young and my dad, whose mustache I simply recognized as an inherent part of his face, shaved. It sort of freaked me out.
Facial hair just belongs on some people. As My Morning Jacket’s Jim James told Filter for its fall issue, “Every man looks best with his God-given beard. God gave us beards for a reason. End of story.”
Richard Buckner, live on MPR’s the Current, 2/28/07:
Richard Buckner | InvitationRichard Buckner | The Tether and the TieRichard Buckner | Figure
Note: Thanks to Largehearted Boy for the reminder of this set.
Previously:
Richard Buckner on Friday Night Lights.
Richard Buckner and Jon Langford
Richard Buckner/Anders Parker.
i’ve nearly always had a beard, being a teenager in the seventies, long hair and a beard was commenplace, though i have to say back then it looked more like facial hair than a beard as such, i looked like an english jesus….as the years went on its become more beard shaped. I always kept it trimmed rather than let it grown huge, firstly a big beard is too much of a statement and secondly because my beard had a tendency to start vearing off to the left if i let it grow too long. in my late thirties i cut the whole thing down to a goatee and mostashe, (i can never spell that word) a neater look and full beards tend to make you look older than you are. at the request of a girlfriend i actually shaved it all off once and was horrified by what i found beneath..beards it seems live off chins and mine seemed non existant now..i grew it back straight away..even with the chorus from various folk of–oh you look so much younger..its taken years off you. My daughter who had always known me with a beard begged me to grow it back. There was a dodgy period as my beard was turning greyer that i had white streaks in my mostache and it looked for all the world as if i had a runny nose as a result. Now im too old to care about looking younger, sod that, the long hair had to finally go, because i was balding at the back, and long hair and balding are a bad combination, six months back i decided to let the beard grow back out..my daughter who’s a big fan of E from Eels (the master of beardness) was all for me going for a huge beard (a big fuck off beard as she so delicately put it) but in the last ten years its all turned white, so by christmas i just looked like Santa…not the effect i was hoping for..so now its back to a trimed goatee and thats how its going to stay…oh and thanks for the bucker its great…