The Bakersfield sound : Bakersfield - country music capital of the West 1940-1974

"Buck Owens turned Bakersfield, California into the epicenter of hip country music in the mid-'60s. All it took was a remarkable streak of number one singles that steam rolled 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 sound, place, and era, a situation the weighty Bear Family box The Bakersfield Sound: Country Music Capital of the West 1940-1974 intends to rectify ... It was an expansive, imaginative American music, building upon country traditions by relying on new technology and singing about modern concerns. Within his book, Bomar traces the origins of the place, the artists, and the tracks, all of which are welcome, but the highest testament to The Bakersfield Sound is that as a collection of songs, it plays like the jukebox of any country music fan's dreams".

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