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The Bakersfield Sound: How a Generation of Displaced Okies Revolutionized American Music
The aesthetic known as the Bakersfield Sound transformed country music, its hard edge a stark contrast to Nashville's stringed orchestras. It turned displaced Okies like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard into household names, and in the process created a widely felt influence on style, instrumentation, and attitude in American music.
Even so, a half century after its emergence, the Bakersfield Sound's significance is underappreciated except among hardcore fans and music historians. Few recognize how this California country music not only countered a Nashville hit-seeking machine that had gone adrift but also portended a cultural shift that touched mainstream America. In this study, author Robert E. Price traces its roots from the depths of the Great Depression and World War II through the heyday of Owens, Haggard, and Hee Haw, and into the twenty-first century.
Even so, a half century after its emergence, the Bakersfield Sound's significance is underappreciated except among hardcore fans and music historians. Few recognize how this California country music not only countered a Nashville hit-seeking machine that had gone adrift but also portended a cultural shift that touched mainstream America. In this study, author Robert E. Price traces its roots from the depths of the Great Depression and World War II through the heyday of Owens, Haggard, and Hee Haw, and into the twenty-first century.
- GenresMusicHistoryNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
Published March 3, 2018
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97 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 1, 2020
Love music, particularly country, and want some GREAT reading? Not only entertaining as hell but a historical masterpiece. Grab a copy of Robert Price’s THE BAKERSFIELD SOUND.
Making my living writing and peddling books, as L. J. Martin, I don’t often tout others, but this one touched my heart and memory so deeply I can’t help but do so. From the infamous Blackboard (I was raised in Oildale), to Fuzzy Owen, Spade Cooley, Jelly Sanders, and Cousin Herb Henson, I was transported back to that small black and white T.V. and my mother’s (Vera) own migration, dragging my brother, Rex, and I along, to a then considered luxurious two-bedroom one bath Westchester palace. That was as momentous to my bro and I as her and my old man’s migration from Oklahoma—yes, with the mattress on top the car—to Wasco in 1936. Where, Herschel, my dad, took a job in a potato shed.
It’s possible Price’s book, besides it’s brilliant prose, touched me as I walked the streets of Bakersfield in the shadow of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. I met with Buck, and met Buck, more than once, trying to sell him a loan on his planned Chrystal Palace—he told me, “Well, son, I believe I’ll just write checks.” He claimed it would be seven million dollars in checks. And if I was told the truth by my rider, picked Haggard up hitchhiking in 61 or 62, a guy carrying a guitar on his way to Delano to play a gig. It stuck in my mind as my rider related, “Yeah, I just got out of San Quinton.” I also showed his house at the entrance to Kern Canyon more than once, with its tile guitar in the bottom of the pool and its model train that would deliver drinks throughout. Terry Christofferson, Buckaroo lead guitarist after Don Rich died, was kind enough to record some riffs for me for use in my audio books in Buck’s studio, the former Kern River theater. I taught Don Rich’s (Ulrich) kids, Vic and Vance, to wrestle in a junior program, his wife Marlane was a partner with my first wife, Donna, in a rental house, and Don left my house in Stockdale Estates—promising me he’d go home as we’d had a couple—the night he rode his Harley to join Marlane and the kids on the coast, and laid it down, just after making the turn north at Morro, and died. I cried, which didn’t happen often. There was never a better picker or more talented musician, or nicer guy, than Don Rich.
Music wasn’t foremost in my life growing up, making a living and trying to raise my boys was, but looking back it was always there in the background. Price’s poignant book reminded me why, and why it was the backbone of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s Bakersfield. Don’t miss THE BAKERSFIELD SOUND. After reading it I now value my Buck signed album cover far more.
Making my living writing and peddling books, as L. J. Martin, I don’t often tout others, but this one touched my heart and memory so deeply I can’t help but do so. From the infamous Blackboard (I was raised in Oildale), to Fuzzy Owen, Spade Cooley, Jelly Sanders, and Cousin Herb Henson, I was transported back to that small black and white T.V. and my mother’s (Vera) own migration, dragging my brother, Rex, and I along, to a then considered luxurious two-bedroom one bath Westchester palace. That was as momentous to my bro and I as her and my old man’s migration from Oklahoma—yes, with the mattress on top the car—to Wasco in 1936. Where, Herschel, my dad, took a job in a potato shed.
It’s possible Price’s book, besides it’s brilliant prose, touched me as I walked the streets of Bakersfield in the shadow of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. I met with Buck, and met Buck, more than once, trying to sell him a loan on his planned Chrystal Palace—he told me, “Well, son, I believe I’ll just write checks.” He claimed it would be seven million dollars in checks. And if I was told the truth by my rider, picked Haggard up hitchhiking in 61 or 62, a guy carrying a guitar on his way to Delano to play a gig. It stuck in my mind as my rider related, “Yeah, I just got out of San Quinton.” I also showed his house at the entrance to Kern Canyon more than once, with its tile guitar in the bottom of the pool and its model train that would deliver drinks throughout. Terry Christofferson, Buckaroo lead guitarist after Don Rich died, was kind enough to record some riffs for me for use in my audio books in Buck’s studio, the former Kern River theater. I taught Don Rich’s (Ulrich) kids, Vic and Vance, to wrestle in a junior program, his wife Marlane was a partner with my first wife, Donna, in a rental house, and Don left my house in Stockdale Estates—promising me he’d go home as we’d had a couple—the night he rode his Harley to join Marlane and the kids on the coast, and laid it down, just after making the turn north at Morro, and died. I cried, which didn’t happen often. There was never a better picker or more talented musician, or nicer guy, than Don Rich.
Music wasn’t foremost in my life growing up, making a living and trying to raise my boys was, but looking back it was always there in the background. Price’s poignant book reminded me why, and why it was the backbone of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s Bakersfield. Don’t miss THE BAKERSFIELD SOUND. After reading it I now value my Buck signed album cover far more.
March 3, 2021
Generally a good read, well-researched, and written by an author with an undeniable zest for the subject matter, but I would have preferred more of a chronological approach. Structurally, I didn't feel like there was a natural progression to the chapter order. Skimming the site reviews, it appears that there are some other books out there on the Bakersfield scene that might be better starting points for the uninitiated.
September 18, 2021
Robert Price's The Bakersfield Sound is a fascinating study of the music scene in Bakersfield, California that emerged with the Dust Bowl starting in the 1930s, based on articles Price wrote for the Bakersfield Californian. While there were many musicians who emerged from this scene and contributed to the Bakersfield Sound, which influenced not only country, but many genres of music (which Price notes early on are often meaningless, established by record company execs and marketing professionals to peddle more records to a target audience), it is really two men who are best remembered for this sound and this scene - Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.
Prior to reading this book, I was aware of the Bakersfield sound and its two major figures (Merle, the working man's poet, being a favorite of mine and of former Paris Review editor Lorin Stein), but I always found it strange that this sound emerged from Bakersfield, California, which I had passed through once or twice traveling between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Reading Price, I learned that the Bakersfield of today was nothing like the Bakersfield of the 40s, 50s and 60s, when honky tonks were the breeding grounds for all sorts of new, raw talent, when motels and neon signs lit up the streets of Bakersfield, a popular place to stay when traveling between California's larger and better-known cities. Like the area near the Salton Sea, once the Palm Springs of its day, Bakersfield, California was once a livelier city than it is today, a city where new and exciting things were happening.
Perhaps more interesting than the stories of the music and the men and women behind that twangy Fender Telecaster sound, is the story of Bakersfield itself, which is really the story of so many of the once thriving towns of America, where working men and women tried to earn an honest living, sometimes even managing to get ahead. Where Bakersfield could have preserved, it destroyed, allowing the city's important historical and cultural sites from this period to fall into decay and disrepair, the history still alive but slipping away with every passing year, the places where the magic happened becoming abandoned lots and junkyards.
Price preserves the history in this book, of the displaced people from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and other Dust Bowl states, who came to California in search of a better life, but who found that they were unwelcome strangers in a strange land, the real life Joads from Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Familiar with the feeling of being an outsider, with the experiences of working for one's daily bread and often not without struggle, the people who made the Bakersfield sound come to life remained connected to the people as they climbed upward on the social ladder. Their story is a story of rags to riches (for some), a story of redemption and more than anything else the story of a people, obstinate and resilient like their parents before them, and changing the course of modern music in the process.
Prior to reading this book, I was aware of the Bakersfield sound and its two major figures (Merle, the working man's poet, being a favorite of mine and of former Paris Review editor Lorin Stein), but I always found it strange that this sound emerged from Bakersfield, California, which I had passed through once or twice traveling between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Reading Price, I learned that the Bakersfield of today was nothing like the Bakersfield of the 40s, 50s and 60s, when honky tonks were the breeding grounds for all sorts of new, raw talent, when motels and neon signs lit up the streets of Bakersfield, a popular place to stay when traveling between California's larger and better-known cities. Like the area near the Salton Sea, once the Palm Springs of its day, Bakersfield, California was once a livelier city than it is today, a city where new and exciting things were happening.
Perhaps more interesting than the stories of the music and the men and women behind that twangy Fender Telecaster sound, is the story of Bakersfield itself, which is really the story of so many of the once thriving towns of America, where working men and women tried to earn an honest living, sometimes even managing to get ahead. Where Bakersfield could have preserved, it destroyed, allowing the city's important historical and cultural sites from this period to fall into decay and disrepair, the history still alive but slipping away with every passing year, the places where the magic happened becoming abandoned lots and junkyards.
Price preserves the history in this book, of the displaced people from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and other Dust Bowl states, who came to California in search of a better life, but who found that they were unwelcome strangers in a strange land, the real life Joads from Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Familiar with the feeling of being an outsider, with the experiences of working for one's daily bread and often not without struggle, the people who made the Bakersfield sound come to life remained connected to the people as they climbed upward on the social ladder. Their story is a story of rags to riches (for some), a story of redemption and more than anything else the story of a people, obstinate and resilient like their parents before them, and changing the course of modern music in the process.
February 14, 2023
While reporting on Bakersfield I came across one of the author's articles and was captivated by his style. I bought Bakersfield Sound because I wanted to learn more about Bakersfield and its unique music history. I knew very little about the genre Bakersfield Sound before reading the book, but that didn't matter. Price writes for both fans and the uninitiated with such enthusiasm you can't help appreciate the people and the place before you finish the book. A great read for anyone interested in the history of a place and populace as well as a unique and under appreciated musical genre.
November 19, 2023
A book about the Bakersfield that gave us the original country outlaws Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. For hard core fans only; it includes far more lesser singers you've never heard of. There's a lot about the new electric guitars our stars cottoned to, thus only musicians would get what most of that is about.
It's also the history of the dust bowl Okies, Arkies, and Texies who landed there.
In all, it's going to make me give Buck Owens another serious listening to.
It's also the history of the dust bowl Okies, Arkies, and Texies who landed there.
In all, it's going to make me give Buck Owens another serious listening to.
Read
August 17, 2019More a collection of anecdotes about prominent people in the Bakersfield honky tonk music scene in the 1950s-1960s than an integrated book. Some of the anecdotes are funny. If you’ve ever written country music (me), danced a two-step or been involved in a bar-room fight, you’ll probably find it enjoyable.
February 23, 2020
Quite an enjoyable read. Reading this has given me more of an ability to talk intelligently about what it is I like about country music. In particular that era of country music that spawned the likes on Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and other great artists.
October 27, 2023
Very enjoyable read. Growing up in Bakersfield, I never appreciated the history and contributions of local performers. I have come to appreciate and even enjoy that period of music. This book helps provide depth and context for it.
November 23, 2020
If you love that Bakersfield country attitude and sound, if you love Buck Owens and Merle Haggard (and dozens of other country stars from the 50s and 60s) this book is essential.
February 4, 2021
3.5 stars. Good, readable, brief overview of the "Bakersfield sound."
August 13, 2023
When Nashville was becoming a polished music scene, Bakersfield was the scene of grittier, telecaster driven music. A well researched tribute to the Bakersfield style.
May 11, 2024
05/10/2024
Read
February 19, 2016"Few music books capture the cultural and historical context along with the sound of the music itself as well as The Bakersfield Sound. Journalist Robert E. Price’s prose deftly sucks readers in to the rich stories of the personalities that populated the dustbowl town of Bakersfield, California, a stop north of Los Angeles that developed a twangier, rockier, stylistic counterweight to Nashville’s sweet, string-laden pop country music in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.
But the book isn’t just a rundown of the lives of country music hit-makers such as Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. It’s a history of America from the early 1900s to today, highlighting the crossroads of commerce and culture that sparked the alternative country music scene that made Bakersfield unique.
Price begins his book with a sociological telling of the Depression-era Dustbowl migration of Okies to the West Coast, explaining that in addition to migrant farmers from Oklahoma, newcomers from Texas, Louisiana and throughout Middle America to the Southwest also arrived. Then the author builds up to the Bakersfield Sound with a history lesson of musical influences, including Western swing, UK folk ballads filtered through Appalachia, Mexican music and more. He introduces readers to honkytonk dancing (and fighting) culture, and takes us on a tour of the legendary nightclubs, dance floors, radio and TV stations that attracted the non-Nashville talent that made up the vibrant Bakersfield scene.
Price’s writing, though incredibly detailed and painstakingly researched, never bogs down in academic dullness; you can tell he’s a passionate fan. And he pays tribute not just to the obvious stars, but to those who helped the scene come together before, during and beyond Owens and Haggard — musicians such as Dwight Yoakam, the Mavericks and Brad Paisley. He even adds appendices listing “Founders,” lesser-known lights and a walking tour of addresses in Bakersfield worth visiting.
If you weren’t already a fan, Price’s encyclopedic scope will have you seeking out the music of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, Merle Haggard and the Strangers, and other Bakersfield stars. Put them on while you enjoy the book, and you’ll be transported to a time of pure American music."
But the book isn’t just a rundown of the lives of country music hit-makers such as Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. It’s a history of America from the early 1900s to today, highlighting the crossroads of commerce and culture that sparked the alternative country music scene that made Bakersfield unique.
Price begins his book with a sociological telling of the Depression-era Dustbowl migration of Okies to the West Coast, explaining that in addition to migrant farmers from Oklahoma, newcomers from Texas, Louisiana and throughout Middle America to the Southwest also arrived. Then the author builds up to the Bakersfield Sound with a history lesson of musical influences, including Western swing, UK folk ballads filtered through Appalachia, Mexican music and more. He introduces readers to honkytonk dancing (and fighting) culture, and takes us on a tour of the legendary nightclubs, dance floors, radio and TV stations that attracted the non-Nashville talent that made up the vibrant Bakersfield scene.
Price’s writing, though incredibly detailed and painstakingly researched, never bogs down in academic dullness; you can tell he’s a passionate fan. And he pays tribute not just to the obvious stars, but to those who helped the scene come together before, during and beyond Owens and Haggard — musicians such as Dwight Yoakam, the Mavericks and Brad Paisley. He even adds appendices listing “Founders,” lesser-known lights and a walking tour of addresses in Bakersfield worth visiting.
If you weren’t already a fan, Price’s encyclopedic scope will have you seeking out the music of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, Merle Haggard and the Strangers, and other Bakersfield stars. Put them on while you enjoy the book, and you’ll be transported to a time of pure American music."
January 2, 2020
"Bakersfield's identity, once upon a time, just happened to be genre-shaping music. Its residents should never forget that." (Price, 181)
I hated growing up in Bakersfield. Hated it. I hated the culture and I despised country music. It wasn't until the early 90s, living in San Francisco, that I gave in and bought the Rhino 3 CD set of Buck Owens. And then I realized how would I was about the music (though, God, how I still dislike the town). Price has written an excellent music and social history is Bakersfield and places it rightfully in the pantheon of Really Important Musical Places. While I still think Gerald Haslam's Workin' Man Blues is the premier work on country music in California, Price's book is invaluable. Highly recommend .
I hated growing up in Bakersfield. Hated it. I hated the culture and I despised country music. It wasn't until the early 90s, living in San Francisco, that I gave in and bought the Rhino 3 CD set of Buck Owens. And then I realized how would I was about the music (though, God, how I still dislike the town). Price has written an excellent music and social history is Bakersfield and places it rightfully in the pantheon of Really Important Musical Places. While I still think Gerald Haslam's Workin' Man Blues is the premier work on country music in California, Price's book is invaluable. Highly recommend .
August 9, 2016
I learned a few new things about the folks who shaped the Bakersfield sound. It was a pleasant read, and not too full of song titles and dates that might drive people away. It presents in simplified terms, how the sound evolved, what effects it had on country music as a whole, and the key players.
Anyone who loves REAL country music, not the junk that passes for it today, will find this book interesting.
Anyone who loves REAL country music, not the junk that passes for it today, will find this book interesting.
September 22, 2023
Second read through of this book and, having gathered more knowledge of the scene in general, found it even better second time around. Concentrates on the main characters of the scene but goes a bit deeper to discuss the roots and influences of the musicians that created what became the Bakersfield Sound. Fabulous read.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews