Rhythm and Booze: Bear Family Records Reveals The Other Side of Bakersfield [Review]

Various Artists

The Other Side of Bakersfield: 1950s and '60s Boppers and Rockers from “Nashville West.”

(Bear Family Records)

May 9, 2014

Beyond the eye-popping stagewear and cool-as-all-get-out-guitars, one of the most fascinating aspects of the Country Music Hall of Fame’s ongoing exhibit, The Bakersfield Sound: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and California Country, is its examination of the early years of the Bakersfield country music scene and how social and economic forces shaped a very different sound from what was coming together in Nashville at the same time.

German reissue label supreme, Bear Family Records, has brought the story of those early days of the Bakersfield music scene into focus across two volumes of The Other Side of Bakersfield: 1950s and '60s Boppers and Rockers from “Nashville West” (available for purchase here and here). The 31 tracks on each disc, mostly from small, Bakersfield-based record labels, trace the evolution of the Bakersfield Sound from pre-rockabilly honky-tonk and hillbilly boogie — built on a foundation of electric guitars and a driving beat, through the heady throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks days of rockabilly and on to the verge of Buck Owens’ and Merle Haggard’s ascent to country music stardom.

As chronicled in Scott B. Bomar’s excellent liner notes, two elements ruled the music scene in Bakersfield: volume and beat. In the Southeastern U.S., commercial country music primarily evolved through performances and shows staged in theaters, schools, churches and VFW halls, but as one moved west of the Mississippi, country music became more about dancing and good times. This was especially true in the Southern California country music scene of the 1950s, where post-war prosperity meant many transplanted Southerners had much more than five dollars on a Saturday night, and the noise level in packed dance halls and honky-tonks required hillbilly musicians to plug in and crank it up.

The Other Side of Bakersfield displays both the diversity and cohesiveness of Bakersfield scene in the mid to late 1950s. From the hardcore hillbilly twang of Fuzzy Owens’ original version of the Buck Owens’ “Yer Fer Me” (which became a No. 10 country hit for Buck in 1962 after a spell check) to supercharged hillbilly pickin’ on tracks like Tommy Collins “Untied,” and even early adopters of a hillbilly hepcat sound like Bill Woods’ “Go Crazy Man,” all of the selections demonstrate the Bakersfield imperative of getting’ up and movin’ your feet to the beat.

Even the tracks that directly reflect styles and trends from Nashville and other sources reveal how the Bakersfield Sound wasn’t a “reaction against” but rather an alternative set of sensibilities. That “familiar but different” aesthetic is best expressed in tracks from The Farmer Boys, a turbocharged Jet Age reflection of the close harmony of the Louvin Brothers, who dumped gallons of gasoline on hillbilly bop with songs like “Somehow, Someway, Someday.” It can also be heard on “Sweet Love” the first single by the future “Bard of Bakersfield,” Red Simpson that reflects the teen pop sound that Marty Robbins was cutting on Music Row, but infuses it with a touch of Western Swing hepness. Even straight-ahead rockabilly like Bill Woods’ “Phone Me Baby,” or Buck Owens’ sole pseudonymous rockabilly single “Hot Dog” b/w “Rhythm and Booze” (credited to “Corky Jones”), reflect a slightly different take on the “Cat Music” that was pouring out of Memphis and Nashville.

As with all Bear Family releases, the sound quality on both volumes is top-notch, especially considering that many of the tracks were sourced from rare, decades-old 45s. The accompanying booklets feature bios on each artist along with a slew of vintage photos from the Bakersfield scene. Whether motivated by pure, pointy-headed historical curiosity or the desire throw down a hoedown in your living room, both volumes of The Other Side of Bakersfield are worth grabbing for a good time on a Saturday night.