1. Rockwell Cyn Rd sign in Santa Clarita, California where I teach at College of the
Canyon  2. Rockwell, "White Guy in White" a pic I took of him while at Trout's

Welcome to the new series, Rockwell Canyon Road, a series that will allow you, the Bakersfield Sound Underground junkie, to follow Rockwell's career through a series of updates.

Although I knew he often sang with some of the Bakersfield sound pioneers at Trout's on the Blackboard Stages and witnessed one of his performances, there was something about Rockwell that I had never realized. 

Before a couple of weeks ago, Rockwell, who runs the last of the surviving Bakersfield sound honky tonks, Rockwell's Trout's and Blackboard Stages, was not only a recording "virgin," but also a radio airplay "virgin" as it concerns being aired as a recording artist. 

July, 2009 would be the month and the year----the fateful summer that his recording artist virginity would be lost and he would become the man, as a recording artist. 

About 1 1/2 weeks ago, after Monty Byrom of Big House came up missing in a recording session, Rockwell graciously offered to fill in on a song I had just written a couple of days before called White Lies about White Guys.  Now around this town, Monty Byrom's shoes are some pretty big shoes to fill, but, judging by his performance, I would say Rockwell not only filled those shoes, but actually polished them up a bit, and took it up a notch behind the mic. 

Reggie Langendorfer, the studio engineer who does a stellar job of the lead guitar and bass on this song, later commented to me later that Rockwell really has a rich-sounding voice that offers a great deal of potential in terms of making new recordings. 

Last night, (after a wonderful interview with the man I call "Darkstar Dan," who worked for years at KUZZ and now runs Bakersfield's favorite record store, Darkstar Records and Books), on Bakersfield's favorite radio show, Bakersfield and Beyond, out of Marin County's KWMR, Rockwell lost his radio "virginity" when Amanda and Mike, the show's co-hosts spinned White Lies about White Guys, taking the lead in debuting the song. 

After it's radio debut, White Lies about White Guys was quietly released at the stroke of midnight, a practice I've come to adopt as a tradition of late and is now available by first clicking "music" and then clicking the album cover for the CD in progress, From Buck Owens Blvd to Merle Haggard Drive at:


You can also sample the song, right here, right now: