Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1086

This week will be devoted to the Bakersfield Sound referred to by Steve Wilmeth in his most recent column.  So what is the Bakersfield Sound?  Robert Price described it as "an amalgam of Western Swing, stripped-down rockabilly, hillbilly and Norteno."  He also says, "in the late 1940s, Bakersfield became a center of West Coast music, created by the economic refugees of the Dust Bowl and the postwar migrations of shipyard and aircraft-factory workers."  Some called it Nashville West.  Wikipedia says:

The Bakersfield sound was developed at honky-tonk bars^[3] such as The Blackboard, and on local television stations in Bakersfield and throughout California in the 1950s and 1960s. The town, known mainly for agriculture and oil production, was the destination for many Dust Bowl migrants and others from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and other parts of the South. The mass migration of "Okies" to California also meant that their music would follow and thrive, finding an audience in California's Central Valley. One of the first groups to make it big on the west coast was the Maddox Brothers and Rose, who were the first to wear outlandish costumes and make a "show" out of their performances. Bakersfield country was a reaction against the slickly-produced, string orchestra-laden Nashville Sound, which was becoming popular in the late 1950s. Artists like Wynn Stewart used electric instruments and added a backbeat, as well as other stylistic elements borrowed from rock and roll. Important influences were Depression-era country music superstar Jimmie Rodgers and 1940s Hollywood swing musician Bob Wills.^[1] In 1954 MGM recording artist Bud Hobbs recorded "Louisiana Swing" with Buck Owens on lead guitar, Bill Woods on piano, and the dual fiddles of Oscar Whittington and Jelly Sanders. "Louisiana Swing" was the first song recorded in the style known today as the legendary "Bakersfield Sound". In the early 1960s, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, among others, brought the Bakersfield sound to mainstream audiences, and it soon became one of the most popular kinds of country music, also influencing later country stars such as Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart, Brad Paisley, The Mavericks, and The Derailers.

Today's tune is Wishful Thinking by Wynn Stewart, who also had such hits as Playboy, Big Big Love, Another Day Another Dollar, Shaw Marie and It's Such A Pretty World Today.

 Wishful Thinking was recorded in Hollywood on 9/15/1959 and released as Challenge 59061.

http://youtu.be/4LZT7s2XyUE