It’s the ladies’ turn: On Saturday, December 15, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will shine a spotlight on its exhibition The Bakersfield Sound: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and California Country with a panel discussion and concert highlighting contributions from women. Both programs are included with museum admission and free for museum members; please visit the museum’s website, www.countrymusichalloffame.org, for additional admission information.
The panel discussion, titled California Angels: Women of West Coast Country, will feature five artists who rose to prominence while performing in the Golden State: Kay Adams, Lorrie Collins, Rosie Flores, Rose Lee Maphis and Country Music Hall of Fame member Jean Shepard. The quintet will discuss their careers in the context of the West Coast country music scene. The program, which will be moderated by California-based music journalist Scott B. Bomar, begins at 11:00 a.m. in the Ford Theater.
At 2:00 p.m., Rosie Flores will return to the Ford Theater stage for a concert, performing songs from her catalog and her latest release, Working Girl’s Guitar, as well as holiday tunes from her albumChristmasville.
During her tenure in Bakersfield, Kay Adams won the 1965 Academy of Country Music Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist, released the enduring truck-driving hit “Little Pink Mack” and appeared in the road shows of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Singer Lorrie Collins, a member of the Collins Kids with her brother Larry, exemplified 1950s California rockabilly with colorful costumes, energetic performances and frequent appearances on the TV program Town Hall Party. Rosie Flores, a highly regarded champion of vintage American roots music, launched her career in Southern California and recorded her 1987 Warner Bros. debut album with producer Pete Anderson. Her 1995 album, Rockabilly Filly, featured duets with Wanda Jackson and Janis Martin, and re-introduced these pioneering rockabilly singers to modern audiences. Rose Lee Maphis appeared on West Coast TV broadcasts with her late husband, Joe Maphis, with whom she recorded “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music)”—a classic inspired by Joe’s visit to Bakersfield honky-tonk the Blackboard Cafe. Jean Shepard’s 1953 chart-topper, “A Dear John Letter,” was the first national hit created by Bakersfield songwriters and musicians, and the beginning of an enduring career for this Country Music Hall of Fame member.
These programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts.
The Bakersfield Sound: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and California Country explores the roots, heyday and impact of the Bakersfield Sound, the loud, stripped-down and radio-ready music most closely identified with the careers of Country Music Hall of Fame members Owens and Haggard. The more than 5,000-square-foot exhibition opened on March 23, 2012, and will run through December 31, 2013.
The Bakersfield Sound exhibition is supported by the Academy of Country Music, Ford Motor Company Fund and SunTrust. Additional support was provided by Buck Owens Production Company. Promotional support is being provided by media partners Great American Country Television Network and Cumulus Media.
Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the foundation also operates CMF Records, the museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B and Hatch Show Print®.
More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.org or by calling (615) 416-2001.
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