larger view

TROUTS & The Blackboard Stages of BAKERSFIELD

April, 21 2008 at MONDAY! Acoustic "JAM" and Songwriter Workshop - 8:00pm
805 N Chester Avenue, Bakersfield, California 93308
Cost : Tips

Bring your instruments or just come in and observe the creative process as some of the most talented people in Bakersfield - and beyond – network and collaborate! It’s interesting, entertaining, and EVERYONE is always welcome!

larger view

The Heartache Valley Girls personify the honky-tonk sound of the old Bakersfield days. Growing up with the wonderful world of country music surrounding them and having parents who listened to little else, The Heartache Valley Girls learned early  how to recognize the soul and heartache of country music. Best Friends from way their youth, The Heartache Valley Girls have tight harmonies and crisp Telecaster licks- a tight playing style to match the close friendship they’ve acquired over the years. On stage, the energy of the music along with the obvious love of creating it leaps from every corner of the stage. So if you ever get the chance to see this magnificent duo in action, please be sure to say hello, as The Heartache Valley Girls follow the motto of “there are no such things as strangers, only friends we haven’t met yet!”  After seeing their performance at Trouts “Green Room” I have become a big fan. The “BUCK” does not stop here!!!!!  The new generation of the Bakersfield sound has manifested itself here in these lovely and very talented young musicians.

 Check their band out here:

  http://www.myspace.com/theh...

 LETS GET THEM TO THE CHRYSTAL  PALACE
 I met the Girl band at  a free songwriting workshop. It is old school Buck!

The workshop was put on by Tom Rockwell, business manager at Trout’s Nightclub, and the proprietor of the Blackboard stage and basement where the workshop was held.  Rockwell (as he is known by all) is always on the move making sure everything is going right, to him everybody is important and everything that is going on in the place is meaningful. I am but a rank amateur at music but I love writing songs as a hobby, for fun and I tell you my skills were modified 10 fold by this exiting 3 day workshop.  Some of the finest country music song writers in the world came in and helped out, including Red Simpson.

Rockwell did an outstanding job and was there filming and or recording the class the whole time. We each took turns in the “hot seat” where we got real world stage experience in front of the class and interested on-lookers.  I admit I had some bad stage freight, but everybody made me feel right at home and by the end of the third night I was fairly confident, lots of encouragement… unfortunately I was just too tired to perform my tunes. I did get some good performance early in the week though, so I came out of it feeling pretty good about my stage experience. I learned that song writing is a lot about writing and rewriting lyrics over and over until you get the product you desire and then working out the music with other musicians. Some of the Blackboard Playboys were there with high degree of musical expertise and were very helpful in this process.. This was like an inspirational work shop for song writing! A fun, and highly recommended, experience.  That’s-a-foe-show---

Watch the Trout’s’ Blackboard calendar for future free workshops.

larger view

REVIEW OF SONG WRITING WORKSHOP

I went out to the Black Board tonight, and all this week for a free songwriting workshop.

The workshop was put on by Tom Rockwell, business manager at Trout’s Nightclub, and the proprietor of the Blackboard stage and basement where the workshop was held.  Rockwell (as he is known by all) is always on the move making sure everything is going right, to him everybody is important and everything that is going on in the place is meaningful. I am but a rank amateur at music but I love writing songs as a hobby, for fun and I tell you my skills were modified 10 fold by this exiting 3 day workshop.  Some of the finest country music song writers in the world came in and helped out, including Red Simpson.

Rockwell did an outstanding job and was there filming and or recording the class the whole time. We each took turns in the “hot seat” where we got real world stage experience in front of the class and interested on-lookers.  I admit I had some bad stage freight, but everybody made me feel right at home and by the end of the third night I was fairly confident, lots of encouragement… unfortunately I was just too tired to perform my tunes. I did get some good performance early in the week though, so I came out of it feeling pretty good about my stage experience. I learned that song writing is a lot about writing and rewriting lyrics over and over until you get the product you desire and then working out the music with other musicians. Some of the Blackboard Playboys were there with high degree of musical expertise and were very helpful in this process.. This was like an inspirational work shop for song writing! A fun, and highly recommended, experience.  That’s-a-foe-show---

Watch the Trout’s’ Blackboard calendar for future free workshops

SONG WRITER WORKSHOP TONIGHT AT TROUTS. AT 7 PM DOWN STAIRS. 21 AND OVER.

larger view

TROUTS & The Blackboard Stages of BAKERSFIELD

April, 8 2008 at TUESDAY! Live Music w/ STEVE WOODS! 7:00pm
805 N Chester Avenue, Bakersfield, 93308
Cost : Tips

:*****LIVE MUSIC on the Trout’s "Legends" Stage with STEVE WOODS! - 7pm til 10pm ***Beginning LINE DANCE LESSONS w/ HELEN! - 6:30pm**KARAOKE on the Blackboard Stage - Hosted by JANA! - 8:30pm ***Live Music SEVEN nights a week! **Karaoke SIX nights a week ***FREE Line Dance Lessons FOUR nights a week! ***2 stages featuring LIVE entertainment ALL WEEK long - ONLY AT TROUT’S!! ***The LAST of the original "Bakersfield Honky Tonk" Nightclubs - Bigger and Better than EVER!

larger view

Response Bakotopia the March Issue “What is the Bakersfield Sound” “:

Firstly, the front cover is a masterpiece, a heartfelt image of Buck Owens in saddle art painstankly crafted by “Pain Is Beauty Tattoo Shop on18thStreeet.

In, “OH My Word”  , Matt Munoz, Bakotopia  Editor, asked the question “did the Bkersfield Sound” leave us that rainy day?”  (The day Buck Owens passed away).  Certainly a driving force , one the founders mentors of the style  was gone but his influence will not soon diminish. The main focus of mainstream country music is American Idol, hardly the sound of early Buck Owens recordings. The truth is however,

Buck   himself wavered from the distinct sound himself in later years.  His recording of “Big In Vegas” has orchestra in it. The Bakersfield sound may no tbe huge in Bakersfield but it has transcended State and International lines and has pockets  and all over the world.

“A call to Arms” by Chase Brockett , is a  pungent cry from the  darkness to unite Bakersfields’ fragmented music scene and create a new Bakersfield sound.   Truly he is passionate about his music, I don’t see much encouragement  of the music that has been named “Bakersfield sound”  and it would be a nice backlash to the “American Idol” country music that now rules the roost. 

Bakersfield has pioneered many types of music,

Even Rural Punk, Korn  Ther is even other types of country from Bakersfield and also Blues , Jazz, Norteno,  Mariachi, Asian , Arabic Music, African styling - Matts’ own styling and so on-  and you could go on forever, But this does not relinquish the fact the  there was a new country music styling invented called “The Bakersfield Sound”  .Listen to it, it is obvious, it may only have been partly evolved in Bakersfield but it is  a very different and distinct sound- defiantly exits and Buck Owens had a big part of the development. No Chrisanova it is no myth and many millions of fans and bands all over the world have heard of the Bakersfield Sound.  The sad part is that folks here  seem to be almost  embittered by the concept  and want the style to die here  so a new music can take the name. Korn can not be undervalued for their influence and success and are  the pride of Bakersfield, but this was not the topic set fourth by Matt.

 Here is a Bakersfield sound  definition adapted from Wikapedia :

The Bakersfield sound , a highly stylistic breakaway from Nashville crap,   was developed at honky-tonk bars such as The Blackboard in Oildale, California, and on local television stations in Bakersfield airing “The Buck Owens’ Ranch” 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 Southwest. The mass migration of these "Okies" to California also meant that their music would follow and thrive, finding an audience in California's Central Valley (Okies, is the defamatory and derogatory ). 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, this included the tawngy leads on the Fender Telecaster and an in your face steelguitar style. In the early 1960s, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, Clarence White with “Nashville West” (Clarence invented the “B” Bender and pioneered its’ use) 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  the had the samae sound but were from no where near Bakersfield, California such as Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart (Marty uses Clarences Guitar), The Mavericks, and The Derailers.

 THE BLACBOARD STAGE IS BACK!! AT ROCKWELL'S TROUTS IN OILDALE'