Bakersfield sound
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The Bakersfield sound was a genre of country music developed in the mid- to late 1950s in and around Bakersfield, California, at honky-tonk bars such as The Blackboard, and on local television stations in Bakersfield and throughout California in the 1950's and 60's. The town, known mainly for agriculture and oil production, was the destination for many Dust Bowl migrants and others from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and other parts of the Southwest. The mass migration of "Okies" to California also meant that their music would follow and thrive, finding an audience in California's Central Valley. One of the first groups to make it big on the west coast was the Maddox Brothers and Rose, who were the first to wear outlandish costumes and make a "show" out of their performances.
Bakersfield country really hit its stride as a reaction against the slick, string-laden Nashville Sound, which was becoming popular in the late 1950s. Artists like Wynn Stewart used electric instrumentation and added a backbeat, as well as other stylistic elements borrowed from rock and roll. In the early 1960s, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, among others, brought the Bakersfield sound to mainstream audiences, and it soon became one of the most popular kinds of country music, also influencing later country stars such as Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart, The Mavericks, and The Derailers.
Buck Owens developed it further, incorporating different styles of music to fit his music tastes. The music style features a raw set of twin Fender Telecasters with a picking style (as opposed to strumming), a big drum beat, and fiddle, with an occasional in your face steel lap guitar. The Fender Telecaster was originally developed for country musicians to fit in with the Texas/Western Swing style of music that was popular in the Western U.S. following World War II. The music, like Owens, was rebellious for its time and is dependent on a musician's individual talents, as opposed to the elaborate orchestral production common with Nashville style country music. Bakersfield Sound musicians perform in the studio as they do on stage, with the same instruments and style they use every day, and do not depend on elaborate studio production techniques when recording their music.
Buck Owens and the Buckaroos and Merle Haggard and the Strangers are the most successful artists of the original Bakersfield Sound era. Artists like Dwight Yoakam, Big House, Dave Alvin, and Brad Paisley have further championed this style of music, and most of today's successful country acts depend on it for their success.
The last real Bakersfield honky-tonk style bar is Trout's Bar in Oildale just north of Bakersfield. Buck Owens' Crystal Palace is the largest local country-western venue, hosting large touring acts.
Musicians from Bakersfield's musical golden era who are still playing locally include Red Simpson, Tommy Hays, and Larry Petree. Recently, there has been talk of a Nashville West revival, a new Bakersfield Sound, and a New Nashville West movement. Newer artists who are grounded in the old style but add in rock and roll and rockabilly include Monty Byrum, Fattkatt and the Von Zippers, and The Dusk Devils. The Wichitas, a band that included members of 1980s Bakersfield cowpunk band Texarcana and the Tornadoes, had a large following before disbanding in 2002. In his later years, Buck Owens seemed to be grooming John McCrae, frontman for the national act Cake, to follow in his wake. This and news of Cake's forthcoming CD, Live at the Crystal Palace, has sparked rumors that McCrae is poised to be "the next Buck Owens." Bakersfield residents Slim the Drifter, Steve Davis and Stampede, and Dr. BLT are also part of the new Bakersfield Sound. Continuing champions of Bakersfield's historical and new-country musical tradition include Glenn Pogatchnik and Bob Timmers of Rockabilly Hall of Fame, Bakersfield Californian columnist Robert Price, local writer N.L. Belardes, and Sharon Marie, daughter of Bakersfield Western singer and entertainer Carolina Cotton.
[edit] External links
- Echoes of Bakersfield, an informational archive site.
- Americana Music News, Reviews, Interviews and Podcast Shows
- [1]: Updated information on Bakersfield roots musicians in Bakersfield and elsewhere.
- [2], comprehensive newspaper series, written by journalist Robert Price, The Bakersfield Californian.
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