"By 1925 drought, falling farm prices, and the beginning of mechanization and rational land use were already making life more difficult for subsistence level farm families.  It was the year when seventeen-year-old Macie Azell Ellington met Buck's father at a church social.  Alvis Sr. was only fifteen, but he had an old car in which he took Macie to church and home again.  There were no parties or dances in their courtship; church was the only place they went together.

The majority of people who farmed in these border states were tenant farmers or sharecroppers.  Either condition kept most on the edge of poverty..."

The Dust Bowl, the Bakersfield Sound, and Buck
Kathryn Burke

Such were the conditions that would lead to the birth of Buck, and they would only get worse, eventually leading the family to head on a journey that would eventually lead them to California's central valley.  The Great Depression would draw many musicians to the same region and Bakersfield became the hub of a bergeoning new movement in country music.  It was a movement born of
Turbulent Times.

Fast foward to 2010.  The bursting recovery many expected would lead us out of the Great Recession, is, instead, an impotent, sluggish recovery some predict will only lead to a double dip recession.  Add to that backdrop disease, poverty, crime, natural disasters and war, and you have turbulence upon turbulence. 

Well, so far, the Great Recession and the aftermath, as distressing as it is, is no Great Depression, but it leads me to this he question: Will great Kern County country music be born out of these turbulent times, they way they were born out of the Great Depression? 

Answer this and win a copy of my brand new single from the CD, Bakersfield Noise.  It's called Turbulent Times and it was just released today. 

Sample it here:
Turbulent Times
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2010

And be sure to catch another episode of Bakersfield and Beyond this coming Thursday, August 19, 2010 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.  You can stream it via this link:

KWMR