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Short documentary chronicles band’s session at historic Pig Studio

The Bakersfield Californian | Wednesday, May 14 2008 11:24 AM

Last Updated: Wednesday, May 14 2008 11:24 AM

Local novelist and blogger N.L. Belardes filmed a short documentary on one of the last bands to play in Buck Owens’ former Oildale studio.

The half-hour film, “The Last Band,” now playing on YouTube, follows punk-country group The Iron Outlaws as it recorded in Pig Studio in March, a month before the studio in the old River Theater closed its doors.

Belardes, KERO Channel 23’s Web site managing editor, added footage from a 2006 Mento Buru recording session and talked old times with Bakersfield Sound alum Red Simpson outside Trout’s.

Another group has documented what it says is the last act to perform in the studio, metal blues artist Marc Jones. Jones and friends are working on their upcoming film, titled “The Final Session.”

Belardes wasn’t sure whether The Iron Outlaws were the last to record there, but that’s beside the point, he says.

“Overall, I didn’t have this feeling of impending doom, ‘This is the last band and I gotta film these guys,’” he says.

He enjoyed capturing the reverence The Iron Outlaws and other musicians have felt for the storied North Chester Avenue studio, which over the years heard the sounds of the Buckaroos, Dwight Yoakam, Korn and other luminaries. He hopes the studio will become a historical landmark.

“If it brings to light the cultural importance of this old theater, let people make documentaries and say what they want to say and keep it alive in people’s consciousness because it’s important,” Belardes says.