Ask John Schaefer Anything: What Is The Bakersfield Sound?
By most anyone’s standards, John Schaefer knows a lot about music. Yet despite his two radio shows and various other music-related projects, we get the feeling he's withholding some of that knowledge. So now's your chance to ask Soundcheck's famously brainy host anything as long as it has something to do with music.
Katie Irish asks: "What was happening in Bakersfield, California that spawned its own sound in country music, otherwise known as the 'Bakersfield Sound'?"
Since John Schaefer is a Brooklyn boy, he reached out to Jessie Scott, director of the American roots music performance series Hill Country Live, to find out more about Buck Owens, Jean Shepard, Merle Haggard, and how they influenced The Beatles.
Jessie Scott on where it started:Â
"The Bakersfield Sound is an amalgamation of early country that was a counterpoint to what was going on in Nashville at the time, which was starting to be sweetened up, less Earthy and authentic.To go back before that, you have to look at great migrations. So much of our music in America comes out in the overlay of nationalities ... The Bakersfield Sound stemmed from the direct migration from the Dust Bowl when "Okies" were going out to California.
"It started in the honky tonks. They were migrant farmers who led really simple lives and they wanted to blow off some steam."
The quintessential Bakersfield Sound song "Louisianna Song" Bud Hobbs and his Trail Headers from 1954
On the influence of Buck Owens:
"Buck was tireless, it didn't matter if his name was on the marquis. He was also credited to bringing the Bakersfield Sound down to Los Angeles to start populating some of the studios in the Los Angeles area. One of the really critical factors was, the radio station KUZZ was heard in the entirety of the San Joaquin Valley. It ended up influencing a lot of people."
Buck Owens & His Buckaroos - "I've Got A Tiger By The Tail" from 1965
On women in the Bakersfield Sound and Jean Shepard:Â
"If you were playing in a honky tonk and you had a great picker and you had a female vocalist, it was no problem. Everyone embraced it. There are many folks coming out of that tradition like Barbara Mandrell for one. Embedded in her history is the Bakersfield Sound. Or even Emmylou Harris.Â
"Jean Shepard is one of the first proponents of the Bakersfield Sound. This song comes from 1953, the Bakersfield Sound is credited as starting in the 50's. Though the people migrated in the 30's and 40's -- the cauldron was started already."
Jean Shepard and Ferlin Huskey play "Dear John" from 1953
On Buck Owens influencing The Beatles:
"I think this is the time that our American music has been so well embraced and a shrine built to it in the EU before we even recognize it’s value. A lot of these were local movements, they didn’t cross pollinate to other places in the country. That’s a part of the beautify of how our music grew in America. There you have The Rolling Stones and The Beatles paying attention to it and morphing it into our culture by their acknowledgement."
The Beatles covered "Act Naturally" a Buck Owens song on their Help album.
