Non-Country Music Bakersfield recordings

Bakersfield private, vanity and indie longplay pressings
by Bryce Martin

From the thrills of the smokin' burnouts from careening dragsters on legendary Bakersfield race tracks, to the vinyl tracks of the Cal State Bakersfield jazz stage band and its smokin' arrangements, here is an all-too-imcomplete look at some recordings other than those associated with the Bakersfield's country music heritage.


Bakersfield High School Driller Band

A two-record set, 100-plus member band under the direction of Wesley Moore and issued in colored vinyl. Performed at Harvey Auditorium on March 14, 1960, two and a half weeks after Martin Luther King gave an address there (February 25).

Title:?
Catalog No.: ?
1960
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Bakersfield Smokers

Albums such as these were issued during the hot rod craze of the early to mid-60s. They are found under the rock or exotica genre in today's listings. No music on this one, "songs" are strictly the sounds of stock cars, hot rods and dragsters in action at Bakersfield. The 16 cuts offer racing sounds from cars and motorcyles. Recorded, produced and edited by rod enthusiast Griff Borgeson. NHRA drag racing legends on hand include "TV" Tommy Ivo, James Warren, Tom McEwen and Camfather Ed Iskenderian.

Griff Borgeson Presents Hot Rod Heaven
Riverside Records RLP 95509
1961
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5th Annual United States Fuel & Gas Championships
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield '63
Fleetwood Records FLP4004S
1963
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6th Annual United States Fuel & Gas Championships
Recorded March 6-7-8 at the Famosa Drag Strip,
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield '64
Fleetwood Records FLP4017
(Lynn, Massachusetts)
Recorded by Richard Blake
Narration by "The Voice of Drag Racing" Jon Lundberg
Side 1: Eliminations, Hot Cars, Fuel & Gas Dragsters
Side 2: Final Eliminations, Hot Cars, Fuel & Gas Dragsters
1964
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Bakersfield College Choir
In Concert 1964-65
Century Custom Recording (label No.?)
Joseph Huszti, Director
1965
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Bakersfield College Choir
In Concert
Century Custom Recording 23983
April 15, 1966 at Civic Auditorium
Joseph Huszti, Director
1966
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Honor Orchestra, Honor Chorus and Honor Band
Bakersfield City Junior High Schools 26th Annual Concert
Century 6623
1982
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CSB Jazz
Yes, We're Open
Writer's Album 1983/84
KM Records KM12575
(Burbank, Calif.)
Groups include: Sanctuary; Five Options; Not Ready For Coffeehouse Players; Over-Easy.
Titles include: Cancion Para Dona Pancha; All's Afire; Mark's Supreme Solo; Four Hours in Carlotta; Supreme My Holdings; Marie, Katwalk, Waltz For Pam.
1984
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Cal State Bakersfield Big Band

This is a double-album that includes tracks from the Sanctuary ensemble, originally formed by the college's Doug Davis. The cover artwork is similar to a 1972 LP as done by Humble Pie.

Smokin'
(record label and No.?)
1988
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BC
Renegade Sounds
Century Custom Recording 19919
Ca. early 1960s

Tracks; Fight Song (Band and Choir); Alma Mater (Band and Choir); Ray Newman (BC Football Coach); Alma Mater (Small Choir); George Washington March (Band); Fight Song (Band); Sounds From the Stadium; Stars and Stripes Forever.
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Calvary Chapel Bakersfield

The album's long title and equally long catalog number is a hint that long song titles will follow.

Let All Who Hath Breath Praise The Lord
(Label?) SPCN-7-100-03472-8
Ministry Resource Center
Inner liner sleeve has "The Making of a Praise Abum"
1984

Tracks: Lord I Lift Up This Day; Living Sacrifice; I Just Wanna Be Like You; Your Will is he Wish of My Life; Humbly Trust; Holy Wind; Sing Unto the Lord / The Lord is My Shepherd; Thank You Lord; There is Healing in the Wings of Jesus; Praise Him; We Bow Our Hearts Before You; We Lift Our Voice; Let All Who Hath Breath Praise the Lord
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George Leonard and His New Orleans Stompers
The Second Bakersfield Concert, 1954
(Storyville label)
Released on CD January 20, 1998

Tracks: Panama; Tin Roof Blues; Lord, Lord, You've Sure Been Good to Me; Burgandy Steet Blues; The World is Waiting for the Sunsrise; Caldonia; Muskrat Ramble; Sensation Rag; Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home; Old Man Mose; When the Saints
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Cradle of Thorns

A gothic rock group with Ty Elam, David File, Kris Kohls, Scot Elis, Tamera Slayton. Their eponymous album was produced by Alex Woltman and engineered by Mikey Davis.

Cradle of Thorns
1994
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Relating to Bakersfield

Society For the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA)
1979 Fall Convention
at Bakersfield, California
October 13, 1979
Shelex Records SHX-79-41
1979
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Leroy Jenkins
Songs and Sermons in Bakersfield
LJEA 1009
19??

He prays for the sick, preaches and sings, pretty much what the LP's title says. Jenkins was a former Georgia businessman who turned to religion and became a reverend after being cured of an injury to his arm, all according to him, after going through the healing line of a tent revival in Atlanta. Man of Faith is the title of a movie based on his life,
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Bootleg:

Neil Young
The Last Album
Bakersfield, California, 1973
American tour (with Crosby and Nash)

Tracks: Sugar Mountain; Sweet Joni; Look Out Joe; Time Fades Away; Don't Be Denied; New Mama; Last Dance; Southern Man; Improvisation
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Mickey Kalis and The Bakerfield Blues Band

A single from August 1969. The custom pressing was neither country or blues but garage rock. United Audio was a small independent from Youngstown, Ohio. The singer was still issuing singles in the early 1980s on his own Mickey Kalis Records.

2:10 to Yuma b/w Got No Time
United Audio 6003
August 1969
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