Bob Price
Robert Price is deeply ingrained in the Bakersfield community. He currently serves as the Executive Editor of The Bakersfield Californian, where he has also served as a reporter, columnist, and award-winning editor. He holds a degree in journalism from CSU Sacramento. Bob has written and spoken extensively about the Bakersfield Sound since 1997. His writings have included scroes of newspaper artiles, liner notes for a Merle Haggard box set, and a chapter for the Country Music Hall of Fame's official "Bakersfield Sound" exhibit guide.
Bob Price discussing Westward Migration and the Bakersfield Sound on C-SPAN. Click Here.
The Bakersfield Sound: How a Generation of Displaced Okies Revolutionized American Music (Paperback)
In California's Central Valley, two thousand miles away from country music's hit machine, the hard edge of the Bakersfield Sound transformed American music in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Nestled at the southern end of California's San Joaquin Valley, the city of Bakersfield is best known for farming, oil fields, and a unique brand of country music called the "Bakersfield Sound." The term is generally used to describe a hard-edged honkytonk sensibility characterized by sharp, twanging Fender Telecaster guitars, crying pedal steel, and straight-ahead country vocals - a sound that th