Hello Again Kats & Kittens, Friend & Fiend,
Try this & smile!
ONWARD!
DONNIE & MARIE once sang, “I’m a little bit Country & I’m a little bit Rock-n-Roll”… ( don’t hate us, we’re just reporting the truth).
We’re heading to the sweet spot in country music…BAKERSFIELD. Mid 1950s….Country music folks West of the great divide, mostly transplanted Okies outta dust bowl days, got a hitch in their giddyup…Country King NASHVILLE is “too slick, too shiny, too many strings…country music is not orchestra!” ELVIS, JOHNNIE, & CARL were starting’ this thing called Rockabilly…then Rock with BILL HALEY, JERRY LEE LEWIS…but that’s not country either…what to do? Maybe take the best of both & stir it up…WYNN STEWART is credited with starting this sound, taking electric guitar, adding a stalwart backbeat, sprinkle in steel-pedal or accordion… Stirs nice & smooth into THE BAKERSFIELD SOUND.
WYNN STEWART, Mizzoo born, family moves to Cali, Pro-Baseball stint, injury ended that, music took over, SKEETS MACDONALD saw talent, got WYNN a recording dotted line with Capitol Records, first single “Waltz of the Angels” charts, YAY! Early 60’s moves to Vegas, night club owner Nashville Nevada, plays six nights a week, a young MERLE HAGGARD plucking bass in the band, WYNN takes notice, gears are shifting. Biggest hit = “It’s such A Pretty World Today” Country music charts No.1, 1967.
Good things spread, people notice, honky tonk dance floors fill, WYNN STEWART’s “sound” grows…throw in a banjo, maybe a fiddle too… but keep that beat moving…
The brightest lights, by far, in this Country music sub-genre are BUCK OWENS & MERLE HAGGARD. Followed closely by DWIGHT YOAKAM.
BAKERSFIELD times three….DWIGHT YOAKAM, BUCK OWENS, MERLE HAGGARD
BUCK & MERLE were the ends of a straight rope, fairly long rope…. BUCK, outgoing, shiny, rebellious, engaging, 1969 has his very own Variety Pictmission Program, HEE HAW on CBS…owned multiple Radio Stations, also proprietor of BUCK OWENS CRYSTAL PALACE Music Hall in Bakersfield…even has a museum. OWENS played there up until he passed away, 2006. His addition to the Bakersfield Sound was a set of twin Fender Telecasters with a picking style, no strumming allowed…fiddle & steel-pedal guitar for flavor.
Bakersfield’s own MERLE HAGGARD on the other hand was a bit more serious, still has a sense of humor but his music wasn’t as “silly” as BUCK’s was…Heavy San Quentin time will do that to a man’s soul & outlook. 1958, robbery, prison, escape plans fail, drugs, booze, & trouble follow HAGGARD, a prison chum goes Death Row, this changes MERLE, “life could be different”, straightens up, model prisoner, 1960 released from prison. Needs a new deal…maybe music.
Kennedy Center Honor (2010), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), a BMI Icon Award (2006), & Country Music Hall of Fame. Double pneumonia takes the “Okie from Muskogee” out at 79…on his birthday.
DWIGHT YOAKAM, Kentucky born, Ohio raised…acting young, guitar is fun too, “that’s for me”…Ohio State doesn’t work out…let’s try Nashville…the Kats there don’t cosy to DWIGHT’s Honky Tonk…see it's all “Urban Cowboy” in Nashville, “so just mosey on outta here”…LALA is the place you wanna be, so he loaded up his truck & he moved to….(had ya there didn’t we?)…LALA was fertile, ripe..early 80s…Punk & Roots Music were the hot thing. DWIGHT fell in with THE BLASTERS & LOS LOBOS, they helped expand his audience, continually writing…sometimes acting. This reporter edited a Pilot with young YOAKAM for HBO titled “The Life & Times of Billy Perdeu”, no traction, but Mr. Y. has acting skills, as we’ll see in a few years….Sling Blade anyone?
1986-ish Nashville’s“Urban Cowboy” falls off his horse, peeps don’t go for that kind of Country no more, “Neo-traditional” stylings take hold, timing couldn’t have been better for YOAKAM…. Honky Tonk is GO! Albums in the making, Acting for the taking! Grammys, Americana Music Award, Country Music Assoc. Award….still plucking’ still writin’, still singin’.
1970s…The Bakersfield Sound expands the music canvas, spills into Rock-N-Roll. Take a listen, CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL, THE EAGLES, FLYING BURRITO BORTHERS, GRATEFUL DEAD, even ALLMAN BROTHERS & LYNYRD SKYNYRD. Listen in on dueling guitars, banjos, steel-pedals, even fiddle work…it’s there.
Look to THE MAVERICKS, ROSIE FLORES, DALE WATSON, KAY ADAMS & of course DWIGHT YOAKAM for that Bakersfield Sound.
That does it for today’s honky tonkin’…
Thanks for listening, until tomorrow.
Peace & Distance.
