Press Archive - Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound 1940 - 1974 - themusicuniverse.com
When Buck Owens and Merle Haggard emerged from the dim lights, thick smoke and loud, loud music of Bakersfield, California’s thriving honky-tonk scene of the 50’s and 60’s, they changed country music forever. “We represent the end results of all the years of country music in this town,” Haggard once remarked about the California city that served as home base for the two Country Music Hall of Fame inductees. But how were the twin pillars of the “Bakersfield Sound” shaped by the Central California’s city’s larger musical community? Who paved the way for their successes and who were their influences? The Bakersfield Sound 1940-1974 answers these questions and more. Due from Bear Family on August 9th, this sprawling 10 CD box set is the first multi-disc anthology to cover Bakersfield’s country music heritage. Diving deep into the “Bakersfield Sound,” the compilation’s 307 tracks include plenty of fan favorites as well as a vast quantity of deep cuts, alternate takes, radio recordings, demos, live material, and previously unreleased studio recordings. The massive collection begins with 40’s field recordings of migrants who arrived in Central California to find a better life, and proceeds to trace the development of this historic country music scene all the way through 1974.
09.07.2019
Press Archive - Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound 1940 - 1974 - Billboard
Bear Family Records' upcoming The Bakersfield Sound 1940-1970 box set, due out Aug. 9, was a labor of love for producer Scott Bomar. He found even more to love when he was presented with was thought to be a lost early recording of Merle Haggard singing "I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can," featured on the box and premiering exclusively below.
Haggard recorded the version included on the set for the independent Tally Records label, where Haggard was signed before Capitol. "I'd heard he'd recorded it for Tally, but nobody ever heard it and it was assumed it was lost," Bomar -- who also annotated Omnivore Records' recent Buck Owens reissues -- tells Billboard. "When I started beating the bushes and putting things together, someone handed me a tape box that was just labeled 'Merle' -- I think it was under somebody's bed somewhere -- and said, 'I don't know if anything on here would be of any interest, but check it out to see.' It turned out to be the original version of that song, which is quite a bit different than the Capitol version he recorded a few years later. It was a real find, quite a nice historical glimpse into that moment in the studio."
09.07.2019
Presse Archiv - Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound 1940 - 1974 - Rolling Stone
The Bakersfield Sound 1940-1974 ***** Die Geschichte eines wegweisenden Country-Stils
Als musikalischer Fremdkörper auf der „Help!"-LP war die von Ringo Starr vorgetragene Version von Buck Owens' Hit „Act Naturally" eine pure Notlösung (Ersatz für seine eigentlich vorgesehene Aufnahme von Lennon/ McCartneys „If You've Got Trouble") und kein Bekenntnis der Band zu Country Music made in Bakersfield. Als die Everly Brothers Merle Hag-gards „Mama Tried" und Country-Rock-Bands wenig später Songs wie „White Line Fever" aufnahmen, geschah dies aufgrund der genre-übergreifenden Klasse der Kompositi-onen der anderen Galionsfigur dieser regionalen Spielart von Country.
27.09.2019
Presse Archiv - Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound 1940 - 1974 - blogcritics.org
California, is typically more authentic-sounding and less commercial than what Nashville has delivered. Wikipedia calls it "the first genre of country music to be significantly influenced by rock and roll, and as a result, the first to rely heavily on electric instrumentation and a defined backbeat. It was also a reaction against the slickly produced, orchestra-laden Nashville sound, which was becoming popular in the late 1950s."
That's about as good a capsule summary as any, but keep in mind that like most musical genres, this one tends to have rather loosely defined boundaries. Just as rock can mean anything from the Sex Pistols to the Moody Blues to Bob Dylan, music lumped together under the Bakersfield umbrella can be Tex-Mex, Western swing, rockabilly, or even mournful, syrupy ballads that could have just as easily issued from Nashville.
The geographical boundaries are as fuzzy as the sonic ones, as a massive new box set, The Bakersfield Sound 1940–1974, makes clear. The set, due out October 18, includes tracks that were recorded in Bakersfield by acts that had roots elsewhere, ranging from Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys to Brooklyn, New York–born Arlo Guthrie. It also features songs associated with Bakersfield that were actually produced in Hollywood.
As the great Merle Haggard once said, "What became known as the Bakersfield sound was always bigger than Bakersfield." And as music historian Scott Bomar points out in his extensive liner notes for this anthology, Bakersfield refers to "a movement that can't be contained within strict musical definitions." Adds Bomar: "The reality is a bit more complex than a simple label or checklist could accurately reflect."
Germany's Bear Family label, which issued the set, is known for its everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mega-boxes, and this collection is true to form.
27.09.2019
Presse Archiv - Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound 1940 - 1974 - audiophilereview.com
Buck Owens' "Down On The Corner" war seine erste kommerzielle Aufnahme von 1955 auf dem Label Pep Records! Johnny Bond's "I Like That Kind" ist ein ordentlicher kleiner Rocker (und ja, es gibt hier inmitten des Country Twangs jede Menge Grenzfelsen und Rock-a-Billy Styling). Steady Lovin'" (wahrscheinlich von) Skeets McDonald ist auch ein bisschen Rock'n Rollin' Freude.
Gitarristen werden sich freuen, die erste Single von Semie Mosley auf Mos-Rite Records zu hören. Ja, das ist die gleiche Mos-Rite, die auch die renommierte Marke Mosrite Guitars kreierte, die bei Surf-Gitarrenbands wie The Ventures in den 1960er Jahren (und The Ramones in den 70er Jahren!) populär wurde. Hier bricht er aus: "Wenn die Heiligen hereinkommen."
Und so geht das Set weiter. Es ist wirklich interessant, wie in sehr kurzer Zeit The Bakersfield Sound durch diese Aufnahmen entsteht, der sofort moderner und rockiger klingt als frühere Nashviller Produktionen. Selbst bei den modernen Produktionen auf den späteren Discs im Set sind die Bakersfield-Aromen recht deutlich zu hören.
Tatsächlich geht es beim Bakersfield Sound nicht nur um einen Musikstil, sondern auch um eine Einstellung, und er stößt auf all diese Tracks.
Diese Sammlung ist unerlässlich, wenn Sie Country Western Musik lieben.
11.10.2019
Presse Archiv - Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound 1940 - 1974 - audiophilereview.com
These 10 CDs will keep your ears busy picking out old and new favorites, and the accompanying book is a great read by itself. Ken Burns got it right on film, but the Bear Family’s taped archives are just as important and entertaining for capturing this era of country music history, as a standalone piece or an accompaniment.
23.10.2019
Presse Archiv - Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound 1940 - 1974 - audiophilereview.com
These 10 CDs will keep your ears busy picking out old and new favorites, and the accompanying book is a great read by itself. Ken Burns got it right on film, but the Bear Family’s taped archives are just as important and entertaining for capturing this era of country music history, as a standalone piece or an accompaniment.
23.10.2019
Presse Archiv - Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound 1940 - 1974 - allmusic
Buck Owens turned Bakersfield, California into the epicenter of hip country music in the mid-1960s. All it took was a remarkable streak of number one singles that steamrolled right through Nashville with their electrified twang, forever changing the notion of what constituted country music and codifying the Bakersfield sound as hard-driving rhythms, trebly Telecasters and lean arrangements suited for honky tonks, beer joints and jukeboxes all across America. Half a century later, these remain sonic signifiers of Bakersfield, so the term no longer conveys a specific sounds, place and era—a situation the weighty Bear Family box The Bakersfield Sound: Country Music Capital Of The West 1940-1974 intends to rectify.
23.10.2019
Presse Archiv - Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound 1940 - 1974 - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
30.10.2019
Grammy Nominee Best Album Notes - The Bakersfield Sound : Country Music Capital Of The West, 1940-1974
Scott B.Bomar, album notes writer (Various Artists)
24.11.2020
ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS (ASRC)
BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED COUNTRY OR ROOTS MUSIC
Scott B. Bomar, The Bakersfield Sound (Bear Family Records)
John Broven, South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous (Pelican Publishing)
Heath Carpenter, The Philosopher King: T Bone Burnett and the Ethic of a Southern Cultural Renaissance (University of Georgia Press)
Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns, Country Music: An Illustrated History (Knopf)
ARSC_awards_finalists_press_2020.pdf
09.12.2020
