THE BAKERSFIELD SOUND

If Bakersfield was in Texas

2011-08-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

If Bakersfield was in Texas
By: Hank Ray

If Bakersfield was in Texas,
It would have blue, blue skies.

If Bakersfield was in Texas,
I could look into your eyes.

If Bakersfield was in Texas,
We could get on our best ponies and ride.

Texas long horns would stampede through Kern’s cotton fields

Buck Owens and Stevie Ray Von would be on the radio
.
Kern River clouds would float by – over the Alamo

If Bakersfield was in Texas,
It would have blue, blue skies.

If Bakersfield was in Texas,
I could look into your eyes.

If Bakersfield was in Texas,
We could get on our best ponies and ride.

WORKIN ON THE ROVER, By Hank Ray

2011-03-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

Bryan Harwood on TV

2010-04-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

Bryan Harwood on the Rockwell Country Music Show, Will be on TV this Wensday Night!
Bryan will perform his new song "Good Friends" about his historic friends Buck Owens, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. Filming was rapped up tonight at Trout's Historic Black Board Stage. Bryan has been performing in Bakersfield for several years.

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Buddy Allen Owen's Show at Bucks'

2010-01-04T20:00:00.001-08:00

Photo by: Susan Lang
Buddy Allen Owens Played The Crystal Palace Last Night

Buddy Owens played some songs off his record last night as well as an awsome medley of his father Buck Owen's songs. Buddy's step father, Merle Haggard, had many of his songs played as well.

Buddy Allen Owens (Buck Owens's son. This photo was taken by BLT with Hank Ray

Kim Macabe was Buddies co-singer and she sand just as good as she did with Buck Owens years ago.

DATA FROM ANSWERS.COM :
"Singer, songwriter and guitarist Buddy Alan, born Alvis Alan Owens, is the son of country legends Buck and Bonnie Owens. While growing up in Bakersfield, California, he listened to country and rock & roll and formed his first rock band, the Chosen Few, at the age of 14. He switched to country music by his late teens and in 1965 moved to Arizona with his mother and her new husband Merle Haggard. That year he also sang for the first time at one of his father's Christmas concerts.

Buddy Alan's first single, a duet with Buck called "Let the World Keep on a Turnin'," was released by Capitol in 1968 and made it to the Top Ten. That same year, he also recorded his first solo single, "When I Turn Twenty One," written by stepfather Haggard; this one made it to the Top 60. By 1969, Alan had spent a summer touring with the Buck Owens Show and was working at a country music nightclub. That year he released two more singles and also recorded his first album, Wild, Free and Twenty One. He then joined his father's All American Show and continued touring the country. His popularity grew, and he starred in his own shows and made regular appearances as a soloist and musician on Hee Haw for the next seven years. Alan again made it to the charts in 1970 with the single "Santo Domingo." In late 1970, he and Buckaroo lead guitarist Don Rich recorded the popular "Cowboy Convention," and Alan was named Most Promising Male Artist by the ACM. From 1971-1975, Alan continued to release modestly successful singles. Alan was signed to Capitol Records for eight years, but despite his initial promise as a performer, he never made it to the big time. Alan left the music business in 1978 to attend college in Arizona. He then went back to radio as Buddy Alan Owens and became the music director at two local stations in Tempe, Arizona. He was voted Billboard's Music Director of the Year four years running during the late '80s and early '90s. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Music Guide"

BAKERSFIELD

2009-10-21T10:39:00.001-07:00

BAKERSFIELD
By: Mike Ness, Social Distortion.

Take me down that line.
Iv’e got a heavy load
I can’t seem to make it on my own
Turn the lights down low
I can’t seem to get you
Get you out of head
Stranded here in Bakersfield,
You seem so close yet far away
Stranded here in Bakersfield,
You’re a million miles away.

I feel the heat comminn down.
Can’t make it through this day.
I can’t hardly fake it
I can’t fce this dayaWas it
something that I said?
Something that I didn’t do?
18 hours more till can be with you.
Stranded here in Bakersfield,
You seem so far away
Stranded here in Bakersfield,
You’re a million miles away.
Will you come be with me in Bakersfield
I am a million years away.

Talking part:
I walked out of that lonely truck stip with my head down, How the fuck did I get into this mess. What would Buck Owens have done? He would have gone home and grabbed that old guitar and wrote a love song, Not just any love song, The one that would make a grown man brake down and cry.

Stranded here in Bakersfield,
You seem so far away
Stranded here in Bakersfield,
You’re a million miles away.
Will you come be with me in Bakersfield
I am a million years away.

BUCK SHOT FOR BRIAN

2009-04-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

BENEFIT AT FISHLIPS

Buck Owens joins Texas Country Hall of Fame

2008-08-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

"Buck Owens, Mickey Newbury, The Whites join Texas Country Hall of Fame
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 – Buck Owens, Mickey Newbury and The Whites will join the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in an induction ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 16 in Carthage, Texas.

Ralph Emery will serve as special guest emcee. Other inductees that evening will be legendary country star Buck Owens and influential singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury. In addition to tributes to each honoree, The Whites will perform some of their own country and bluegrass music." (CST)

“The Blackboard Café

2008-08-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

“The Blackboard Café, Bob’s Lucky Spot, the Rainbow Gardens, the Pumpkin Center Barn Dance, the Beardsley Ballroom, the Clover Club, Tex’s Barrel House,
Trout’s and a number of other establishments offered music seven nights a week. This provided enjoyment for the patrons but more importantly allowed the musicians a place to hone their skills.” (Jeff Nickell, Kern County Museum; July 2008).

Son of the Father, of Bakersfield Sound. By: Hank Ray...BUCK SHOT--FEEL THE BLAST!!!

2008-07-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

Above: John Owens (from "Buck Shot" video, by: Hank Ray).

PHOTO CREDIT: Dr. and Roxie Thiessen. Buck Shot

Son of the Father, of Bakersfield Sound.
By Hank-Ray

GET READY FOR A HURRICANE! at the crystal palace 6th Aug (Top photo: By Dr. BLT, photo below by Dr. BLT; Roxie Thiessen photoshop, all other photos by Ray Harwood)

A city struggling to find a new identity, or maybe retrieve a lost glory, since they lost their soul; the architect of the Bakersfield Sound, Buck Owens. The Bakersfield sound was a genre of country music developed in the mid- to late 1950s in and around Bakersfield, California. 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. Fender Telecaster "twang" with a driving beat!
Recently a large apportionment has been allotted to, restore North of the Kern River in Oildale, where much of the magic took place half a century ago. Included in the renovation is a giant mural of the Bakersfield sound; Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and the ghostly images of the dust bowl migration. Many many of the cities 322,500 Bakersfieldians don’t care, some even despise the legacy,and older country acts such as Hank Ray, The Blackboard Playboys, and Dr. Bruce Thiessen play in dark corners of the Bakersfield night without much fan fair and the Buck Owens Crystal Palace remains somewhat of a tourist destination. Bakersfield needs a defibrillator, something to bring it back to life. There has been a VERY slight swell in the tide of Bakersfield country music recently with, younger, local Punk and Metals bands picking up telecasters and playing a heavier revitalized Bakersfield sound, the anthem being “Streets of Bakersfield”, made popular by the classic duet of Buck Owens and Dwight Yokam, many years ago. In 2005 a young punk band called the Kookoonauts received a fair amount of airplay on the local station, KRAB radio with a cow-punk song called Searching, the guitar was defiantly “TWANG” and the driving drums numbed the indo-cranial cavities. The band was disbanded when the guitarist was badly beaten in one of the downtown venues on brutal streets of Bakersfield. The iron Outlaws are a fantastic Bakersfield country band with definite “Bad Religion’ overtones, especially with their tune “If I could only die for love”. We are sure to see huge things from them, and I am sure some young Bakersfield ladies have hung out wanted posters on these Iron Outlaws! As far as perpetuating the legacy of the Bakersfield sound, it is coming soon, like a tsunami on the horizon, and it is coming from the very house of Buck.
I had just gotten through touring all the old abandon Bakersfield Honkytonks from the golden age of “Nashville West” with Mr. Lloyd Reading, an alumnus of the 1930s “Blackboard craze”. When Lloyd’s daughter Anna told me her son was also into country music, this sparked more than just a flash interest and when I heard the bands demo the ink in my pen began to boil over. The band had so much drive, power and freshness it blew me away, I must have listened to it over and over a hundred times or more, and I am actually listening to it now as I put pen to paper. The band sounds to me like a cross between Alan Jackson and Social Distortion; with some Mavericks thrown in for good measure!

The name of the band is “Buckshot” and they are locked and loaded, fully loaded for buck, Buck that is, for one of the lead singers is John Owens, son of the father, of the Bakersfield Sound. John has been a hard working ranch hand and foreman on the Owens’ Horse Ranch for most of his life; he is the quintessential American Cowboy persona and carries himself in accordance. He is a caricature the west; speaks in a direct manner, he is reserved with facial expression and tone. When we first met, I couldn’t help reflecting on the 1993 western movie classic “Tombstone”; when the character Mr. Fabian (the young actor) stated to Josephine Marcus (as they exit the stage coach), when it first arrives in the dusty streets of Tombstone: “you've set your gaze upon the quintessential frontier type. Note the lean silhouette... eyes closed by the sun, though sharp as a hawk. He's got the look of both predator and prey”.
John Owens has none of attributes of a musician, save one; he has a voice bestowed on him from the father; his father, the father of the Bakersfield sound. Mr. Owens truly has the best country music voice I have ever heard.
Aside from his extraordinary voice, his band is the perfect mix of talent. Meeting the band was much like the David Allen Coe song; “Desperado's Waiting on a Train” , they area group of friends that like to hang out together and maybe share a frosty adult beverage, one day at the beach they discovered John had the Owens gift. David Allen, rhythm guitarist, whom started his music career when he got out of the Navy, plays a beautiful flamed Fender Telecaster. The Fender Telecaster is the guitar that defined the original “Nashville West” rebellion decades before. David, like all the members of the band are hard core Bakersfield born and bred, most are relatives of country royalty but they all kept it pretty close to the vest. Despite their country roots, all the band members came from an assortment of local heavy metal bands that have been shaking the walls of Bakersfield for the last decade. David traded in his beloved Fender Stratocaster for the telecaster for this new venture. When I asked David to describe “Buck Shots” music, he relaxed his arms over his Telecaster, turned his head toward the band and remarked: “You gotta look, we got a bunch of rock guys with an old school country guy so of course it’s going to have an edge, and it’s almost southern rock”.

Simon Faughn, as John Owens points out, is as far from country- in appearance- as a person could be; shaved head, Mr. Spock side burns, and two “sleeves” of tattoos down his arms. Simon sings lead along with John and their voices blend perfectly with each other. Simon describes his music relationship and influences with “Buckshot as such”: Once we start writing our own music, that’s when our real distinctive sound will emerge. Our roots will shine through; Hank III is my absolute favorite. The influential roots I pull from go way back, I like that old boon-docks –hillbilly-red neck sound, I LOVE THAT! John and I are the two lead singers and we go back and forth; he will highlight one song and then I’ll highlight the next and then we may do a duet.” Simon has played in many local metal bands over the years, in fact he is also concurrently in a popular metal band called 800LBS Gorilla, and where does and 800 lbs Gorilla sleep? Any where he wants to, even the world famous, Buck Owens ranch!

Mike Martin holds down the post of lead guitar and backup vocals, he sports a red white and blue Fender Telecaster in the tradition of Buck Owens, whose songs they cover so well. Mike screeches and twangs like the old masters and I am sure Buck would have approved. His vocal high notes are reminiscent of Buck's partner in rhyme, Don Rich. Like most of the dudes in the band Mike's family was steeped in the early Bakersfield music scene, his mother Anna was the one whom introduced us, his Grandfather, Lloyd Reading, was involved in the late 1930s honkytonk circuit.

The rhythm section of Buckshot is made up of DD Boutros on bass and Colby Swank on drums. They too came from “metal” backgrounds and sharpened their chops in Myndsick. Colby and DD create a wall of driving sound that sets the canvas for what is sure to be called a “new Bakersfield sound” masterpiece!
They started getting together and casually jamming at the Owens ranch, even today they say it is mostly for fun, from my perspective, phenomena.

PHOTOS BELOW ARE COURTESY OF ANNA READING OF THE BLACKBOARD STAGE AT TROUTS;
BUCK SHOTS 1ST SHOW:

PHOTOS BELOW ARE OUT-TAKES FROM THIS BLOG BY HANKUS RAYUS

BELOW ARE THE PHOTO OUT-TAKES FROM THIS BLOG, BY: DR. AND ROXIE THIESEN:

WELCOME TO THE NEW SITE FOR THE STUDY OF THE BAKERSFIELD SOUND!

2008-07-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

THE RESEARCH JOURNAL
WELCOME TO THE NEW SITE FOR THE STUDY OF THE BAKERSFIELD SOUND! The Bakersfield sound was a genre of country music developed n the mid- to late 1950s in and around Bakersfield, California. 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. Fender Telecaster "twang" with a driving beat!