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Local Bakersfield, CA Music Scene Bakersfield is mainly known for its country legends such as Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. It's also been the home of Korn, Adema, Bill Aken and American Idol contestant Amy Adams. The town has been immortalized in country music by the song "Streets of Bakersfield" by Dwight Yoakam. Bakersfield's metropolitan area had over 800,000 residents in the 2010 Census. Campuses include California State University at Bakersfield and Bakersfield College. The local scene is covered by The Bakersfield Californian and Bakersfield News. OP Stylee is a reggae/rock band that has had multiple members including vocalist Otis Paul Gipson, drummer/keyboardist Daniel Burt, guitarist Mike Day and bassist/drummer/keyboardist Mark Powell. The band has over 10,000 fans on Reverbnation. Their song "Kiss Me" has an instantly likeable groove with the flavor of an international hit. The history of the Bakersfield music scene does not include a long list of nationally signed acts. Bakersfield Local Music Scene History Bakersfield ranked number 17 in a 2019 survey by Cubesmart.com called "Best Places for Musicians." Park of this high ranking was due to "must see" venues owned by country legend Buck Owens, such as Crystal Palace and Riley's Tavern. Other artists from the town to rise to national fame were Merle Haggard and Korn. The local sound of Bakersfield is being preserved by Bear Mountain Sports owner/musician Gene Thome, who has compiled a CD of the region's musical acts called It's a Bakersfield Thing, released in 2015. The project was originally based around the 80th birthday of local country legend Red Simpson in 2014, but grew to become a wider tribute based on a suggestion by producer Rick Stevens. The album includes tracks featuring musicians Eugene Moles, JayDee Maness, Mark Yeary, Johnny Owens (Buck's son) and several others. Country legend Vince Gill and his steel guitarist friend Paul Franklin have paid tribute to the town to Buck Owens and Merle Haggard with an album titled "Bakersfield." While Owens was originally from Texas and moved to Bakersfield, Haggard was a native of the oil and farm community. Both artists rose to national fame in the 1950s and 1960s and helped popularize country music of that era. Owens was the top country artist of the sixties, racking up 19 number one hits on the national country charts. This tribute album was written about in this Randy Lewis blog 7/29/2013 in the Los Angeles Times. Bakersfield Music & Recording Studios, owned by Reggie Langendoerfer, has been serving the region's musicians for over two decades. Langendoerfer was born in Germany and moved to Bakersfield in 1989. He began work on a small recording studio that handled a lot of duplication services. The studio moved and expanded in 1999 to 931 26th Street Downtown. He has since worked with B.B. King, teaches music and engineers recording at his state of the art recording facility. The John Hollins Band - a blues band from Kern County featuring trumpet player John Hollins and Tracy Peoples on vocals. Hollins began playing the recorder in the third grade and within a year was playing trumpet. In the late sixties he attended West High School. At age 16 in 1970 he played with the Kern Philharmonic Orchestra. He then started playing in blues bands and was discovered by Buck Owens, who recorded him at his studio. Read more about the John Hollins Band in this Valerie Lewis article 4/16/2013 in Examiner.com. |
