bakersfield sound

Buck and Bonnie Owens, Merle Haggard, Bill Woods - their names are forever associated with the Bakersfield Sound. But what about the lesser known artists who also belted out their stories of hardship defying Nashville's more polished grooves? Music historian and writer Scott B. Bomar has just released a 10-CD collection The Bakersfield Sound: Country Music Capital of the West, 1940-1974 that fills in the blanks for even the most diehard fans. He’ll appear in conversation with The Bakersfield Californian's Robert Price at the Walter W.

On this week’s Valley Edition: When it comes to California’s overhaul of groundwater management, many small farmers are wondering: When will they get a seat at the decision making table?

Also, Bakersfield may take a different approach to the homelessness crisis by using empty jail beds to enforce drug laws. 

Plus: We dig deep into the Bakersfield Sound with a new 10-CD collection. 

Listen to those stories and more in the podcast above.

For decades Trout's Nightclub has been a fixture in the Oildale neighborhood of Bakersfield. It was the musical home of people like the late Red Simpson and others who helped make the "Bakersfield Sound" incredibly popular among country music fans in the decades following World War II.  The venue was also considered one of the city's last original honky-tonk clubs. But earlier this spring the bar closed, and doesn't show any signs of reopening soon.

It might be the most famous boxcar in Kern County, if not the entire state of California. The childhood home of the late country music star Merle Haggard is no longer in Oildale, where it sat for decades – it’s now at the Kern Pioneer Village near the end of a two year-long restoration. The  museum is throwing a party to celebrate the completion of the project April 9th called the Haggard Boxcar Festival.

This week on Valley Edition, we look at the the future of California’s state parks system. After years of budget cuts and closures, how should this treasured part of the Golden State reinvent itself? We hear a special report.

We’ll also learn more about a new program called Talking Is Teaching that focuses on early childhood education, and something called the "word gap." That's the estimated 30 million fewer words that children from lower income families hear compared to those from upper income families. 

Talking Is Teaching segment guests: 

Detroit has Motown, Seattle has grunge, and San Francisco has psychedelic rock. Just three examples of American cities where unique musical styles developed and thrived, gaining international attention and helping to define the very image and sound of those places.

A new documentary film seeks to tell the story of one of the most influential figures in the development the Bakersfield Sound. But when the film makes its Bakersfield debut this Thursday night at the Crystal Palace, the star on the screen won’t be Buck Owens or Merle Haggard, it will be musician, songwriter and influential TV personality Billy Mize.