10 Best Looking Bakersfield Record Labels

1. Pike
Colorful and musical

2. Mosrite
Iconic "M"

3. Bakersfield
Homey

4. Global
Old school great

5. Tally
Major-label looks

6. Starview
Nice angles

7. Country Capers
Comic relief

8. Rose
Beautiful color

9. Audan
Somehow sleek

10. World
Looks almost big-time

Also: ITCA, Cougar, Nashville West, Blue Book

TODAY'S FOLKSY EXPRESSION OVERHEARD: "Nuttier'n a peach orchard bore."

Bakersfield Top Ten All-Time Songwriters

1. Merle Haggard
His output speaks for itself

2. Dallas Frazier
Could be No. 1

3. Buck Owens
Many of his were co-writes

4. Red Simpson
Wrote some classics

5. Tommy Collins
Truly talented

6. Buddy Mize
Tremendous output

7. Bob Morris
Great melody writer

8. Billy Mize
A favorite of Dean Martin

9. Herb Henson
Nice output during short span

10. (tie) Dusty Rhodes
Small but memorable output

10. (tie) Kenny Johnson
Probably should be rated higher

TODAY'S FOLKSY EXPRESSION OVERHEARD: "Hotter'n a bucket o' red ants."



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Desert Island Vinyl

Favorite Bakersfield-Associated Recordings
(in no particular order)

"Goin' Skinny Dippin'" - Mayf Nutter
"Truck Drivin' Man" - Bill Woods (his original version on Rose Records)
"Roll Truck Roll" - Red Simpson
"Burnin' Rubber" - Gene "The Draggin' King" Moles
"Ask Me No Questions" - Bill Woods
"Black Cat" - Tommy Collins
"On the Jericho Road" - Merle Haggard
"Hot Dog" - Buck Owens (his original version on Pep Records)
"Goose Rock" - Bud Hobbs
"Silver Wings" - Merle Haggard
"Hard Top Race" - George Stogner
"Blues In the Blue of the Night" - Billy Barton
"Kathleen" -- Wally Lewis (original on Tally)

Discography For Little Richie Records

Below is my attempt to compile a 45 discography for Little Richie Records. I got to talk to Richie once by telephone and he was very accomodating and generous in helping with a promotion campaign for a publication I was working for located on Rosedale Hwy. in Bakersfield. Interesting label design. It's pink in color with a drawing of a ropin' young cowboy? A Bakersfield connection is Jim Whitlock's "Walking in the Footsteps of a Fool" as recorded by Kelly Warren (LR-1014).

NOTES: Albert Young Eagle AKA Albert Lucero;

Little Richie Records
Belen, New Mexico
(Bay-LYNN)
Owner: Little Richie Johnson
LR-0000; some later were LRJ-0000]

LR-1002 Albert Young Eagle "It's Over Now"/"Congratulations" -- 1975
1003 Carolyn Horton and Albert Young Eagle "Holding You Was Just Too Hard"/
1004 Frank Leal "Are You Lonesome Tonight"/"Because I Love You" -- 1975
1005 Lloyd Green "Quicksand"/"Darisa"
1006 Will Powers "The Peterbilt Song"/"Play Me a Country Song"
1007 Frank Leal "The Word Woman"/"Is There Any Chance"
1008 Albert Young Eagle "I'll Get Over You"/"Shake Hands With a Fool"
1009 Lee Sherwood and the Road Show "Breaker-Breaker"/"Song For a CB" -- 1976
1010 Rod Hart "C.B. Savage" b/w "Better Off Gone" -- 1976
1011 Kelly Warren "I'm Sorry Baby"/"I Remember the Good Times" -- 1976
1012 Albert Young Eagle "Before My Time"/"'Cause She's a Woman (The Woman of My Life)"
1013
1014 Kelly Warren "Walking in the Footsteps of a Fool"/"Turn Back the Hands on the Clock" -- 1977
1015 Albert Young Eagle "Just Wait For Daddy" / "You Ain't Never Been Mine"
1016 Bobby Lee "I Gotta Have My Baby Back"/"Easy Touch Soft Hearted Me" -- 1977
1017 Alvie Self "Peanut Farmer"/"I See Your Love"
1018 Sherwin Linton "You Men Are All Alike" b/w "The Baby's Cryin'" -- 1977
1019 Dwight Davis "I Cry Alone" b/w "The Lonely Still is Heavy" -- 1977
1020 Dwight Davis "Tears of My Woman"/"Criss Cross"
1021 Bill Mack "Too Tall Jones"/"King Kong" -- 1977
1022 Bobby Helms "Love Power"/"Before Your Heartaches Come"
1023 Kelly Warren "Ain't That Something"/"Living For You, Dying For Him"
1024 Albert Young Eagle "Cause She's a Woman/"Better Off in Dallas" -- 1977
1025
1026 Sam West IV "For Your Love"/"Unwritten, Unsung Country Love Song"
1027 Chuck Dale "Lady Lay Your Head on My Shoulder"/"Never Let Me Go"
1028* Sam West IV "There Goes My Heart Again"/"One Nite Stand" -- 1977
1029 Donna Darlene "What's Wrong With the Way That We're Doing It Now" b/w "The Hand You're Holdin' Now" -- 1977
1030 Dennis Bruderer "She's Already Gone"/"The World Called Today"
1031
1032 Dennis Bruderer "Mule Skinner Blues"/"Shake Hands With a Fool"
1033
1034 Billy Blanton "Blue Side of Lonesome"/"Texas When I Die"
1035 Jimmy Fautheree "Heaven is Only Knee High"/"This Ole House"
1036 Joe Holtzen "On My Way to Houston"/"She's Already Gone"
1037 Ronnie Smith "I Can't Get the You Out of Me"/"She Burned the Little Road Side Tavern Down"
1038 Madame X "Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight"/"Ain't Worth the Pain"
1039 Hatch Bros "Song For Someone Special"/"Shady Grove"
1040
1041
1042 Tony Albert "Texas Love Affair"/"Sally Jane"
1043
1051 Rod Hart "My Name is Country Music"/"I Just Need Lovin'"
1052 Albert Young Eagle "On My Way to Houston"/"Cry"
LP
??? Patty Gallagher & The Sundowners

LR338 Travis Mimms "Wait a Little Longer, Please, Jesus"/"Little Old Time"
*Stereo #711/RM1028 Karen Dee "Mule Skinner Blues" b/w "I'll Build You a Song"

Others: RON FORBIS

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Mystery 45s

From 'The Twilight Zone' of Bakersfield singles releases

Sid Silver is a mystery. Who was he? Tom Sims, a San Diego, Calif., collector and lawyer told me he bought a garage full of items from Bill Woods out of Woods' Bakersfield garage in the mid-1980s. "One item was a box full of unplayed 'Bumble Rumble' singles by Sid Silver," Sims said. That is the sum total of my research on that one. Also lost to antiquity: Bonnie Blue Bell. "Let's Go" is too good of a recording to raise such question marks. It is without question not Bonnie Owens, who was a friend of mine and whom Merle Haggard once described as having an "odd voice." Bonnie Blue Bell sings "Let's Go" with a Leon, whom I theorize might be Leon Roach, a vocalist with Bud Alden's band. And then there is Duke Dickson. I've dug and dug and not found even a clue. He took his "Walking Shoes" and walked on, if you'll pardon my corniness. After coming up mostly empty and banging my head on these three, any sense of humor I have left is welcome for my well-being.
Bakersfield rockabilly. Tele friend.

Me and Wanda Jackson Finally Meet

My Visit With Wanda Jackson
By Bryce Martin

If I find Wanda, it will not be the first time I have seen her in person.

Back in 1963 in my mostly wasted youth, I left my hometown of Galena, Kan., and drove in the direction of the small town of Arma, nine miles north of Pittsburg, to see the greatest singer on the planet perform. I paid at the door. Wanda Jackson, I had trouble believing, was on stage at the Blue Moon Ballroom, a place I had never visited before. It was a large building, resting off the highway about a hundred feet and the only place of any size in the vicinity.

She wore a bare-shouldered gown and looked stunning. Her voice was impossible to describe, accented with trills and lilts, smooth and clear when need be, growly, mean, impudent, and nimbly naughty at intervals. She was wild and raw, her lyrics often wonderfully bizarre and delivered in a frenetic rhapsody of rock and roll the equal of any man. Then she would deliver a soothing country ballad, in as soft and artful a voice as you would imagine from an angel.

There was a closed-off wraparound balcony that some of the boys had sneaked up the stairs to find. They wanted to peer down and get a better view of Wanda’s cleavage. It didn't appear to be a good angle for that, and the small group soon disappeared.

I walked outside when the show bid finale and stood in the gravel driveway. Wanda, with dark hair and eyes, came out and entered a waiting Cadillac. A man assisted her entry and closed her door for her. Someone whispered that it was her husband. She smiled politely, and rather sadly, I thought, as she acknowledged those of us nearest her and waved with a delicate raised hand in a goodbye gesture.

The Cadillac soon disappeared in the dark and the distance and produced a final crunch of gravel before smoothing out on the asphalt. Wanda Jackson. Here. In this place. In my universe. Tonight.

Wow. There goes my 25-year-old, grown-up prom queen.


I arrived at the Baptist church complex in Bakersfield not as early as I would have liked. I found Wanda down the sidewalk from the building where she was about to make an appearance. I introduced myself and told her I would appreciate a short interview. Her husband, Wendell, interrupted.

"I'm Wendell, her husband, and you should have notified us sooner. There is not enough time now as we're heading to where we need to go. Join us if you like."

"Afterward then," I said.

"No, we'll be leaving right after for another appointment," Wendell said. "Like I said, you should have let us know beforehand."

Since Wendell was doing the talking, I aimed my conversation toward him as we walked along, but I wanted to make sure Wanda heard. I mentioned how I had seen her perform with her Party Timers in 1963 at the Blue Moon Ballroom in Arma, Kan. She had toured with her then-boyfriend Elvis Presley while still a teenager and had made hundreds, no thousands, of appearances of the years. Still, I thought it might ring a bell since her manager at the time, Jim Halsey, was based in nearby Independence, Kan., and part of her band was from nearby Pittsburg.

"The only thing I recall, other than Wanda's singing," I said, "was some of her stage patter. In introducing one of her songs, she turned to one of the musicians backing her and said, 'We picked this song up in Russian while we were there from a little Russian boy. What was his name? Ivan Snatchertitsoff?'"

"Things have really changed since then, haven't they?" Wendell said.

I guessed that he meant going from telling bawdy, and bad, jokes in those days to holding church rallies in present day.

Wendell confirmed that the man driving the Cadillac that evening in Kansas would have been him and that the two at the time had not been married long.
...
To be continued

Here's to you, Bill

Bill Woods of Bakersfield
(To "Werewolves of London")
By Bryce Martin

Saw him at the the Blackboard with his Orange Blossom Playboys band
after Walkin' through the streets of Bako in the hot sun
He was bowin' on his fiddle and fingerin' a fast hand tellin' Buck
"Play it hot now, sonagun"

Chorus:
Aaahaaw, Bill Woods of Bakersfield
Aaahaaw
Aaahaaw, Bill Woods of Bakersfield
Aaahaaw

Crowd doin' some howlin' and roarin' round about midnight
Buck's Telecaster bigger than the downtown clock tower
Playing some Bob Wills and ah-hawin,' it was a fright
Music playin' in all its power


Chorus:
Aaahaaw, Bill Woods of Bakersfield
Aaahaaw
Aaahaaw, Bill Woods of Bakersfield
Aaahaaw

Well, I heard Bill singin' 'bout a truck drivin' man at the wheel
About headin' on down to San Antone
I heard Billy Mize backing him on a cryin' steel
The music all combined to give out a moan
I saw a long line of dancers arranging to form a square
And all their hands a-holdin'

Aaahaaw, Bill Woods of Bakersfield
Huh-big stuff
Aaahaaw
Bill Woods of Bakersfield

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