Victoria Hallman Shares 'Lay Your Heart On Mine' From Unissued Buck Owens-Produced Album

Victoria Hallman shares a new single, "Lay Your Heart On Mine," off of her upcoming album From Birmingham To Bakersfield, out on April 28 via Omnivore Recordings.

Backed by The Buckaroos, and produced alongside Buckaroo Jim Shaw, Buck and Victoria recorded a successful album they were both happy with, but due to life and career challenges for both, it fell through the cracks and disappeared. Or, so everyone thought...

Forty years later, From Birmingham To Bakersfield finally sees the light of day! Produced for release by Hallman, Grammy nominee Randy Poe (also author of Buck 'Em: The Autobiography Of Buck Owens), and multi-Grammy winner Cheryl Pawelski, with Mastering and Restoration by multi-Grammy winner Michael Graves, the release sounds as fresh as it did when it was first recorded. In addition to the album, three bonus demo tracks from 1980 are included - recorded with a band that included James Burton on guitar, Hal Blaine on drums, and bassist Emory Gordy, Jr.

"In 1982, with Buck Owens producing my new album, I wasn't the one choosing songs," states Hallman. "But when an unknown songwriter approached me with a demo of 'Lay Your Heart on Mine,' I knew it was a breakout hit, and with some convincing, Buck agreed to cut it. It's been forty-plus years, but at last that album is being released. And even after all this time, 'Lay Your Heart on Mine' still sounds like a breakout hit."

"With its sweeping disco strings and Hallman's perfectly understated vocal, the song picks up all its worries and fears and takes them out on the town for a spin beneath the neon lights and glitter balls," said Holler in their feature on the song. "'Lay Your Heart On Mine' is as perfect as pop country gets."

Victoria Hallman began her career at the age of four; recording her first record when she was six, and appearing on The Steve Allen Show while still in grammar school. She would soon open for Bob Hope, and eventually become part of Buck Owens' touring band. Owens brought her to Hee Haw, and subsequently took her into the studio in 1981 to record a solo album, From Birmingham To Bakersfield.

In 2006, Victoria and Shaw decided to look for the tapes for the album, but they were nowhere to be found. Over a decade later, Hallman joined the Authors Guild after writing her book Hollywood Lights, Nashville Nights: Two Hee Haw Honeys Dish Life, Love, Elvis, Buck & Good Times In The Kornfield, where she was contacted by a record collector who had found an acetate with her name on it at a yard sale in Los Angeles. It was the lost album!

The packaging for From Birmingham To Bakersfield contains photos, ephemera, and liner notes from Poe featuring new interviews with Victoria about her career and the discovery of this lost piece of Country Music history. Available on LP for Record Store Day on April 22, the CD and Digital will be available April 28, 2023. So, get ready to take the journey From Birmingham To Bakersfield!

Listen to the new single here:

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Victoria Hallman