More home town

Merle haggard, another Bakersfield product. He sings about the local river, the Kern. We used to float the river, some of us still do! Those steep dirt mountains in the background, we took motorcycles up; the jagged rocks in the upper Kern, we dove from them. The steep cliffs? We climbed them vertically.

These musicians are the sons of dust bowl migrants. Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck was accurate, as my parents told me. The Bakersfield Sound, it is called, it is a unique form of country and western.  Here is a site with early photos of the musicians.

Here is Bud Hobbs and the Trail herders with Buck owens on lead guitar, 1953.


An early Bakersfield TC variety show from 53:
'The Cousin Herb Henson Trading Post TV Show' ran on weekday afternoons. It showcased Bakersfield area musicians as well as a wide variety of guest stars, and the broadcast signal was strong enough to reach much of the Central Valley, Fresno, and out to the coast. Check his music.

Bill Wooods was the earliest, and regular at the Blackboard country and western club. Here is his hit:


Here is the typical Dust Bowl story from Arkansas to Bakersfield:

Fuzzy Owen was a pivotal figure in the development of the Bakersfield sound -- while co-owner of the small but influential Tally label, he was the first to record Merle Haggard, later serving as the renowned singer/songwriter's longtime manager. Born Charles Owen in Conway, AR, in April 1929, he headed west to Bakersfield at age 20, picking cotton while moonlighting at the soon to be legendary nightclub the Blackboard, where three nights a week he played steel guitar in a honky tonk band featuring his cousin Lewis Talley.

My family traveled the same route, much later. My mom taught school to many sons and daughters of the cotton pickers.