The Bakersfield Sound
Smoke-filled clubs and aspiring artists helped create the Bakersfield Sound. The likes of Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Fuzzy Owen, Lewis Talley, Bonnie Owens, Red “Suitcase” Simpson, Bill Woods and a bevy of others honed their craft inside the smoke-filled nightclubs.
Located 112 miles (180 km) north north west of Los Angeles, Bakersfield, California gave rise to one of the next genres of country music. The Bakersfield Sound grew out of hardcore honky tonk, adding elements of western swing.
One-time West Coast residents Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell influenced the leading proponents of this sound. The Bakersfield Sound relied on electric instruments and amplification more than other subgenres of country, giving the music a hard, driving, edgy flavor.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Smoke-Filled Clubs
The granddaddy of them all was The Blackboard Café on Chester Avenue, Bakersfield, California, famous because so many stars and upcoming performers played there. It was also the base for Bill Woods radio program.
People have shared their stories of the fights and troubles that occurred not only at the Blackboard but other places like the Lucky Spot on Edison Highway, the Barrel House at the Garces Circle and sole survivor Trout’s, which is still open just across the Kern River on North Chester.
An unnamed musician is said to have ruined his guitar over the head of a man who was dancing with his wife and there are other stories not fit for print. These places didn’t seem any more violent than other bars of their time, but the spotlight shined brighter on them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------The Artists
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 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. Wynn Stewart and the Tourists, Wynn Stewart and the West Coast Playboys, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos and Merle Haggard and the Strangers are the most successful artists of the original Bakersfield sound era.
The West Coast Playboys
In 1952, Wynn Stewart formed the West Coast Playboys with Sid Barnes (steel guitar, piano), Tony Amico on drums and lead guitarist called Ray. They were another young band, with the exception of Barnes who had been active for some years, having joined The Luke Wills band in 1947.
Although a band in every sense, the core member of the group was singer and frontman Wynn Stewart. Stewart, born Winford Lindsey Stewart on June 7, 1934, Morrisville, Missouri and his family had moved to California (CA) during World War II, finally settling in Los Angeles, CA in 1948.
Stewart had been active on radio in the South for some years, and at the large family Sunday gatherings in Huntington Park, CA, he always performed with various family members.
Eventually Stewart began to take a more serious attitude, taking on a manager, with his first publicity photo printed in 1950. By this time Wynn was a regular performer on deejay Carl 'Squeakin' Deacon' Moore's talent show in Huntington Park, CA.
During those shows Wynn performed with the house band that included Ralph Mooney, Joe Sisk, Buddy Houston, and Shorty Macus. With these frequent appearences, Wynn not only won the contest regualry, but he and Ralph Mooney built up a friendship, that led to both men playing important roles in each other's careers over the next two decades.
The West Coast Playboys worked the taverns and clubs, when Stewart accepted a six night a week gig, Barnes quit the band and Shirley Roy 'Pete' Ash took his place. Eventually they lost their lead guitarist, and Wynn's friend Ralph Mooney also joined the group on lead guitar and alternating on steel guitar with Pete Ash.
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.
At the time their contemporaries were Glenn & Gary: The Missouri Mountain Boys, Chuck & Gene (Chuck Mills and Gene Davis), The Johnny Mosby band, Sammy Masters, The Little Country Boys (with Clarence, Eric and Roland White), The Collins Kids, Gene O'Quin who was already an established recording artist, and The Cochran Brothers (Eddie and Hank).
Most of these artists were around the same age as Wynn, or even younger and would change the West Coast music scene over the following years. For now, they were just the hot young new talent on the scene.
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, Wynn Stewart, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, among others, brought the Bakersfield sound to mainstream audiences and it soon became one of the most popular sounds of country music, also influencing later country stars such as Dwigh Yoakam and Marty Stuart.
------------------------------------------------------------Artists and Bands Who Developed the Bakersfield Sound
Partial Listing
- Biff Adam -S
- Bill Turner -W
- Bill Woods -S
- Billy Liebert -S
- Billy Mize -S
- Bob Morris S
- Bobby Austin -T
- Bobby Griggs
- Bobby Wayne -S,T
- Bonnie Owens -S
- Bud Hobbs
- Buck Owens -B
- Carl West -W
- Cecil Bays -W
- Chuck Mills
- Clarence White
- Cliff Crofford
- Curly Wiggins
- Dale Norris -W
- Dave Kirby -S
- Dennis Hromek -S,T
- Don Markham -S
- Don Rich -B
- Doyle Holly -B
- Doye O'Dell
- Doyle Singer -B
- Eddie Burris -S
- Eddie Drake
- Eddie Hazelwood
- Eldon Shamblin -S
- Eric White
- Ferlin Husky
- Fuzzy Owen -S
- Gary Lambert -W
- Gene Davis
- Gene Mills
- Gene O'Quin
- George French Jr. -S
- Glen Campbell -S
- Gordon Terry -S,T
- Helen "Peaches" Price -S,T,W
- Jackie Burns T
- James Burton -S
- James Titttle -S
- Jan Howard
- Jay Dee Maness -B
- Jerry Brightman -B
- Jerry Sanders
- Jerry Ward -S
- Jerry Wiggins -B
- Jim Gordon -S
- Jim Pierce -T
- Jimmy Walker
- Jody Payne -S,T
- Johnny Gimble -S
- Junior Nichols -W
- Lewis Talley -S
- Leon Copeland -S
- Mark Yeary -S
- Merle Haggard -S,T
- Norman Hamlet -S
- Oscar Whittington
- Pete Ash -W
- Ralph Mooney -S,T,W
- Ray Sanders
- Red Lane -S
- Red Simpson -S
- Roland White
- Ronnie Jackson -B
- Ronnie Reno -S
- Roy Counts -W
- Roy Nichols -S,T
- Rusty McDonald
- Sammy Masters
- Sid Barnes -W
- Skeets McDonald -W
- The Buckaroos
- The Collins Kids
- The Cochran Brothers (Eddie and Hank)
- The Johnny Mosby Band
- The Strangers
- The Tourists
- The West Coast Playboys
- Tiny Moore -S
- Tom Brumley -B
- Tommy Collins -S
- Tony Amico -W
- Wayne Wilson -B
- Willie Cantu -B
- Wynn Stewart -T,W
B-Member of the Buckaroos
S-Member of the Strangers
T-Member of the Tourists
W-Member of the West Coast Playboys
