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Bakersfield Country Music Awards: Sound to live again?
Unique country style on life support, some say
| Monday, Jun 9 2008 10:38 AM
Last Updated: Monday, Jun 9 2008 2:34 PM
Sonny Langley of Bakersfield said Trout’s and the Blackboard Stages are the only place in town you can still listen to good country music.
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Monty Byrom, left, receives an award from T. Rockwell honoring him during the second annual Country Music Awards held at Trout's in Oildale.
Guitar player Steve White takes time to thank people for honoring him at the second annual Bakersfield Country Music Awards held at Trout's in Oildale.
Red Simpson shakes hands with the crowd during the festivities of the second annual Bakersfield Country Music Awards held at Trout’s and the Blackboard Stages. Simpson was one of the many musicians honored.
Guitar player Tommy Hays and Jerry Bowen, president of the Bakersfield Country Music Museum, share a story with the audience gathered for the second annual Bakersfield Country Music Awards held at Trout’s and the Blackboard Stages.
The 73-year-old guitarist joined the veterans of the Bakersfield Sound to commemorate the achievements of Bakersfield’s breakaway country music movement in the second annual Bakersfield Country Music Awards.
“This is a drive to embrace contributors of all avenues of the Bakersfield Sound,” said T. Rockwell, spokesman for one of Kern County’s few surviving honky tonks. Rockwell said contributors to the Bakersfield Sound were receiving certificates of recognition on behalf of Bakersfield.
The award ceremony doubled as a reunion for those people involved in creating the Bakersfield Sound. Red Simpson, 84, was greeted with the whispers due a local legend as he walked through the honky-tonk’s door. Simpson composed 30 songs with Buck Owens and six with Merle Haggard.
Later, as he took a drag on his cigarette outside, Simpson said he considers all the folks inside as “old friends.”
He still plays there every Monday night.
Although for many the Bakersfield Sound is a thing of the past, the awards ceremony was designed to spark a flame into the dying country music scene.
“This whole thing is on life support,” said Lynda Fette, promotions director for Trout’s. “Shame on Bakersfield for not supporting the local bars and clubs.”
Jason Keplinger agreed but said that younger bands are bringing back the Bakersfield Sound but are still small in numbers. The 30-year-old from Oildale was a minority among the older faces at the awards ceremony.
Bruce Thiessen, 47, of Bakersfield was handing out business cards for his blog, bakersfieldsoundunderground.com, which focuses on connecting the old Bakersfield Sound with new artists trying to revive the movement.
“I would love to get guys like Sonny (Langley) and young guys together in the studio,” he said. “It’s like the past meets the present.”
Many lamented that the farther you travel from Bakersfield, the more people know about Bakersfield Sound. Monty Byrom, former lead singer from Big House, said everywhere he toured, people knew about Bakersfield.
“When other people found out we were from Bakersfield, they were our friends instantly,” he said with a smirk. Rockwell said in faraway places like Sweden or New Zealand, Bakersfield is huge.
Don Kidwell, lead guitar in the Blackboard Playboys, an in-house band at Trout’s, described the lost interest in country music in Bakersfield as an increase of interest from another source.
“MTV came in and exposed this music to the masses and nobody had to come out to hear it anymore,” he said. For Kidwell, Trout’s is the “market” for old-time country music.
He considers Trout’s sacred ground.
“Merle played here. Buck played here,” he said.