Like so many of Bakersfield’s country music cathedrals, the Blackboard, located just south of the Kern County Museum on Chester Avenue, suffered an ignominious end, becoming a Dominos Pizza before being torn down to make room for a charter school.
The Blackboard Cafe filed as an Articles of Incorporation in the State of California and is no longer active. This corporate entity was filed approximately sixty-eight years ago on Monday, June 29, 1953 as recorded in documents filed with California Secretary of State.
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The famous,” Bakersfield Sound,” a string twisting –twang Fender guitar based music, with a hard driven beat, a new country music style unique to the Bakersfield area, was born and burnin’. The new building is made of cement with a brick front. Photo Courtesy of Adoph Limi.
The Bakersfield sound , a highly stylistics 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.
Starting in 1966, the show was shot in "batches" in Oklahoma City, much as Hee Haw would later be done in Nashville.
In its original location, the Bakersfield sign was the unofficial entrance to the city. Ask any of the Dust Bowl folk what that sign meant to them and you’ll get the picture. Song: “Streets of Bakersfield” — but Owens’ original, 1972 version, not the overplayed (and more successful) remake with Dwight Yoakam.
Collins, whose real name was Leonard Sipe, had a solid run as a recording artist and a great career as a songwriter.
Buck Owens lived in this large, ranch-style house overlooking the Panorama Bluffs during his “Hee-Haw” years, 1968-1974. It was also where Owens was living when he had his final No. 1 hit, “Made in Japan,” prior to his comeback hit with Dwight Yoakam in 1989 on “Streets of Bakersfield.”. Don’t bother the occupants.
It’s now the Basque Club , but back in the early 1950s, the Rainbow Gardens was an all-ages dance hall. It’s where Buck Owens and Merle Haggard first saw their idols, Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell, the two spiritual grandfathers of the Bakersfield Sound.
Merle Haggard, Tally Records’ first and biggest signing, recorded “Skid Row” for them in 1962. It was his first recording. Song: “Skid Row” by Merle Haggard. • Rainbow Gardens, 2301 S. Union Ave. It’s now the Basque Club, but back in the early 1950s, the Rainbow Gardens was an all-ages dance hall. It’s where Buck Owens and Merle Haggard first saw ...
Bill Woods, a musician, DJ and entrepreneur who gave Owens one of his first jobs at the Blackboard playing guitar, is buried nearby. Song: “Soft Rain” by Don Rich (from a live recording on KUZZ). • Merle Haggard’s mansion, 18200 Highway 178.