Bakersfield sound
Encyclopedia
The Bakersfield sound was a genre of country music
developed in the mid- to late 1950s in and around Bakersfield
, California
. The many hit singles were largely produced by Capitol Records
country music head, Ken Nelson
. Bakersfield country was a reaction against the slickly produced, string orchestra-laden Nashville sound
, which was becoming popular in the late 1950s. Buck Owens
and the Buckaroos
and Merle Haggard
and the Strangers are the most successful artists of the original Bakersfield sound era.
migrants and others from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and other parts of the South. 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 was a reaction against the slickly-produced, string orchestra-laden Nashville Sound
, which was becoming popular in the late 1950s. Artists like Wynn Stewart
used electric instruments and added a backbeat
, as well as other stylistic elements borrowed from rock and roll
. Important influences were Depression
-era country music superstar Jimmie Rodgers
and 1940s Hollywood swing
musician Bob Wills
. In 1954 MGM recording artist Bud Hobbs recorded "Louisiana Swing" with Buck Owens on lead guitar, Bill Woods on piano, and the dual fiddles of Oscar Whittington and Jelly Sanders. "Louisiana Swing" was the first song recorded in the style known today as the legendary "Bakersfield Sound". In the early 1960s, Merle Haggard
and Buck Owens
and the Buckaroos
, 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
.
Two important British Invasion
-era rock
bands also displayed some Bakersfield influences. The Beatles
recorded a popular version of Owens' "Act Naturally
". Years later, The Rolling Stones
made their connection explicit in the lyrics of the very Bakersfield-sounding Far Away Eyes
, which begins: "I was driving home early Sunday morning, through Bakersfield ...".
The Bakersfield Sound has such a large influence on the West Coast music scene that many small guitar companies set up shop in Bakersfield in the 1960s. The biggest of significance was the Mosrite
guitar company that still influences rock, country, and jazz music to this day. The famed Mosrite
company was stationed in Bakersfield until the death of the company's founder, Oildale
resident Semie Moseley
, in 1992.
and the Buckaroos
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" pedal steel 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 US following World War II
. The music, like Owens, was rebellious for its time and is dependent on a musician's individual talents and spirit, 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.
and the Buckaroos
, as well as Merle Haggard
and the Strangers are the most successful artists of the original Bakersfield Sound era. Love of the Bakersfield Sound has never died, carried on by artists such as Chris Hillman
and Gram Parsons
of The Byrds
and The Flying Burrito Brothers
in the 1960s-70s, Highway 101
, Hillman and The Desert Rose Band, and Marty Stuart
in the 1980s and '90s, and Big House
, Dwight Yoakam
, Red Simpson
, Ferlin Husky
. Dave Alvin
, The Derailers
, The Mavericks
, Dale Watson
, and many more in recent decades. Musicians from Bakersfield's musical golden era who are still playing locally include Red Simpson and Tommy Hays. Newer local artists who are grounded in the old style but add rock and roll
, and blues
include Monty Byrom
, and Chuck Seaton. Bakersfield residents (the late) Slim the Drifter, Steve Davis and Stampede have also contributed to the new Bakersfield Sound.
In an interview, Dwight Yoakam defined the term "Bakersfield sound":
To one degree or another, most of today's successful country acts depend on the Nashville West or Bakersfield Sound revival style for their success. The magazines No Depression
and Blue Suede News regularly feature Bakersfield sound enthusiasts, while podcasts such as Radio Free Bakersfield carry on the tradition online.
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
developed in the mid- to late 1950s in and around Bakersfield
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The many hit singles were largely produced by Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
country music head, Ken Nelson
Ken Nelson (United States record producer)
Kenneth F. Nelson was a American record producer and A & R man for Capitol Records.-Early life:Born in Caledonia, Minnesota, at the age of 14, Nelson made his radio single debut as a singer in 1925...
. Bakersfield country was a reaction against the slickly produced, string orchestra-laden Nashville sound
Nashville sound
The Nashville sound originated during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of honky tonk music which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s...
, which was becoming popular in the late 1950s. Buck Owens
Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. , better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos...
and the Buckaroos
The Buckaroos
The Buckaroos were a Grammy-winning band led by Buck Owens in the 1960s and early '70s, who were heavily involved in the development and presentation of the "Bakersfield Sound." Their peak of success was from 1965-1970. In 2005, CMT named the Buckaroos No...
and Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
and the Strangers are the most successful artists of the original Bakersfield sound era.
History
The Bakersfield sound was developed at honky-tonk bars such as The Blackboard, and on local television stations in Bakersfield and throughout California in the 1950s and 1960s. The town, known mainly for agriculture and oil production, was the destination for many Dust BowlDust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
migrants and others from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and other parts of the South. 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
Maddox Brothers and Rose
The Maddox Brothers and Rose, known as America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band from the 1930s to the 1950s, consisted of four brothers, Fred, Cal, Cliff and Don Maddox, along with their sister Rose. Cliff died in 1949 and was replaced by brother Henry...
, who were the first to wear outlandish costumes and make a "show" out of their performances.
Bakersfield country was a reaction against the slickly-produced, string orchestra-laden Nashville Sound
Nashville sound
The Nashville sound originated during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of honky tonk music which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s...
, which was becoming popular in the late 1950s. Artists like Wynn Stewart
Wynn Stewart
Winford Lindsey Stewart , better known as Wynn Stewart, was an American country music performer. He was one of the progenitors of the Bakersfield sound...
used electric instruments and added a backbeat
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
, as well as other stylistic elements borrowed from rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. Important influences were Depression
Great Depression in the United States
The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement...
-era country music superstar Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
James Charles Rodgers , known as Jimmie Rodgers, was an American country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
and 1940s Hollywood swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
musician Bob Wills
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...
. In 1954 MGM recording artist Bud Hobbs recorded "Louisiana Swing" with Buck Owens on lead guitar, Bill Woods on piano, and the dual fiddles of Oscar Whittington and Jelly Sanders. "Louisiana Swing" was the first song recorded in the style known today as the legendary "Bakersfield Sound". In the early 1960s, Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
and Buck Owens
Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. , better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos...
and the Buckaroos
The Buckaroos
The Buckaroos were a Grammy-winning band led by Buck Owens in the 1960s and early '70s, who were heavily involved in the development and presentation of the "Bakersfield Sound." Their peak of success was from 1965-1970. In 2005, CMT named the Buckaroos No...
, 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
Dwight Yoakam
Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music...
, Marty Stuart
Marty Stuart
John Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...
, The Mavericks
The Mavericks
The Mavericks is a country music band founded in 1989 in Miami, Florida, United States. Between 1991 and 2003 they recorded six studio albums, in addition to charting 14 singles on the Billboard country charts...
, and The Derailers
The Derailers
The Derailers are an American country music band based in Austin, Texas. They were founded by Portland, Oregon natives Tony Villanueva and Brian Hofeldt in 1994.-History:...
.
Two important British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
-era rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
bands also displayed some Bakersfield influences. The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
recorded a popular version of Owens' "Act Naturally
Act Naturally
"Act Naturally" is a song written by Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison, originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, whose version reached number 1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart in 1963, his first chart-topper...
". Years later, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
made their connection explicit in the lyrics of the very Bakersfield-sounding Far Away Eyes
Far Away Eyes
"Far Away Eyes" is the sixth track from rock and roll band The Rolling Stones's 1978 album Some Girls.Mick Jagger and Keith Richards collaborated extensively on writing the song, which was recorded in late 1977. A bootleg version with Richards singing exists. The Stones, longtime country music...
, which begins: "I was driving home early Sunday morning, through Bakersfield ...".
The Bakersfield Sound has such a large influence on the West Coast music scene that many small guitar companies set up shop in Bakersfield in the 1960s. The biggest of significance was the Mosrite
Mosrite
Mosrite is an American guitar manufacturing company, based in Bakersfield, California, from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Founded by Semie Moseley, Mosrite guitars were played by many rock and roll and country artists....
guitar company that still influences rock, country, and jazz music to this day. The famed Mosrite
Mosrite
Mosrite is an American guitar manufacturing company, based in Bakersfield, California, from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Founded by Semie Moseley, Mosrite guitars were played by many rock and roll and country artists....
company was stationed in Bakersfield until the death of the company's founder, Oildale
Oildale, California
Oildale is a census-designated place in Kern County, California, United States. Oildale is located north-northwest of downtown Bakersfield, at an elevation of 469 feet . The population was 32,684 at the 2010 census, up from 27,885 at the 2000 census...
resident Semie Moseley
Semie Moseley
Semie Moseley was a luthier, and the founder of Mosrite guitars.He was born in Durant, Oklahoma in 1935. His family migrated to California along a path similar to many "Bakersfield Okies", first moving to Chandler, Arizona in 1938, and two years later in Bakersfield, California...
, in 1992.
Buck Owens and The Buckaroos
Buck OwensBuck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. , better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos...
and the Buckaroos
The Buckaroos
The Buckaroos were a Grammy-winning band led by Buck Owens in the 1960s and early '70s, who were heavily involved in the development and presentation of the "Bakersfield Sound." Their peak of success was from 1965-1970. In 2005, CMT named the Buckaroos No...
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" pedal steel guitar. The Fender Telecaster
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
was originally developed for country musicians to fit in with the Texas/Western Swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
style of music that was popular in the Western US following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The music, like Owens, was rebellious for its time and is dependent on a musician's individual talents and spirit, 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.
Other successful artists
Buck OwensBuck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. , better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos...
and the Buckaroos
The Buckaroos
The Buckaroos were a Grammy-winning band led by Buck Owens in the 1960s and early '70s, who were heavily involved in the development and presentation of the "Bakersfield Sound." Their peak of success was from 1965-1970. In 2005, CMT named the Buckaroos No...
, as well as Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
and the Strangers are the most successful artists of the original Bakersfield Sound era. Love of the Bakersfield Sound has never died, carried on by artists such as Chris Hillman
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
and Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
of The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
and The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers was an early country rock band, best known for its influential debut album,The Gilded Palace of Sin . Although the group is most often mentioned in connection with country rock legends Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the group underwent many personnel changes.-Original...
in the 1960s-70s, Highway 101
Highway 101
Highway 101 is an American country music band founded by Paulette Carlson , Jack Daniels , Curtis Stone and Scott "Cactus" Moser . With Carlson as lead vocalist, the band recorded three albums for Warner Bros. Records Nashville and charted ten consecutive Top Ten hits on the Hot Country Songs...
, Hillman and The Desert Rose Band, and Marty Stuart
Marty Stuart
John Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...
in the 1980s and '90s, and Big House
Big House (band)
Big House is an American country music band based in Bakersfield, California. Grounded in the Bakersfield Sound, originally, the band consisted of Monty Byrom , David Neuhauser , Chuck Seaton , Tanner Byrom , Sonny California , and Ron Mitchell...
, Dwight Yoakam
Dwight Yoakam
Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music...
, Red Simpson
Red Simpson
Red Simpson is an American country singer-songwriter best known for his trucker-themed songs.-Biography:Red Simpson was raised in Bakersfield, California, the youngest of a dozen children...
, Ferlin Husky
Ferlin Husky
Ferlin Eugene Husky was an early American country music singer who was equally adept at the genres of traditional honky honk, ballads, spoken recitations, and rockabilly pop tunes...
. Dave Alvin
Dave Alvin
Dave Alvin , is a guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been one of the leading proponents of 'roots' or 'American' music, bringing together elements of rock-and-roll, blues, rural and tejano music....
, The Derailers
The Derailers
The Derailers are an American country music band based in Austin, Texas. They were founded by Portland, Oregon natives Tony Villanueva and Brian Hofeldt in 1994.-History:...
, The Mavericks
The Mavericks
The Mavericks is a country music band founded in 1989 in Miami, Florida, United States. Between 1991 and 2003 they recorded six studio albums, in addition to charting 14 singles on the Billboard country charts...
, Dale Watson
Dale Watson (singer)
Dale Watson is an American alternative country/Texas Country singer, guitarist and songwriter based in Austin, Texas. He's positioned himself as a tattooed, stubbornly independent outsider who is interested in recording authentic country music...
, and many more in recent decades. Musicians from Bakersfield's musical golden era who are still playing locally include Red Simpson and Tommy Hays. Newer local artists who are grounded in the old style but add rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
include Monty Byrom
Monty Byrom
Monty Curtis Byrom is an American rock, blues and country guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. He fronted bands Billy Satellite, New Frontier, and the Academy of Country Music nominated Big House. Earlier in his career Byrom co-produced and co-wrote hit songs for Eddie Money while a...
, and Chuck Seaton. Bakersfield residents (the late) Slim the Drifter, Steve Davis and Stampede have also contributed to the new Bakersfield Sound.
In an interview, Dwight Yoakam defined the term "Bakersfield sound":
'Bakersfield' really is not exclusively limited to the town itself but encompasses the larger California country sound of the Forties, Fifties and on into the Sixties, and even the Seventies, with the music of Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, the Burrito Brothers and the Eagles -- they are all an extension of the 'Bakersfield Sound' and a byproduct of it. I've got a poster of Buck Owens performing at the Fillmore West in 1968 in Haight Asbury! What went on there led to there being a musical incarnation called country rock. I don't know if there would have been a John FogertyJohn FogertyJohn Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...
and Creedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
had there not been the California country music that's come to be known as the 'Bakersfield Sound'.
To one degree or another, most of today's successful country acts depend on the Nashville West or Bakersfield Sound revival style for their success. The magazines No Depression
No Depression
No Depression may refer to:* No Depression , a bi-monthly roots and Americana music magazine and now a music website.* "No Depression in Heaven", a 1936 song popularized by the Carter Family...
and Blue Suede News regularly feature Bakersfield sound enthusiasts, while podcasts such as Radio Free Bakersfield carry on the tradition online.
External links
- Original site of Buck Owens Studios to close on 4/1/08
- Americana Music News, Reviews, Interviews and Podcast Shows
- Updated information on Bakersfield roots musicians in Bakersfield and elsewhere
- comprehensive newspaper series, written by journalist Robert Price, The Bakersfield CalifornianThe Bakersfield CalifornianThe Bakersfield Californian is the daily newspaper serving Bakersfield, California and surrounding Kern County in the state's San Joaquin Valley.-History:...
. - Music Fog - Americana Music. Daily videos of exclusive performances.