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the bakersfield sound:
Country Music Capital of the West, 1940-1974
(10 CD set + 224 page book, Bear family Records)
Reissue Producer: Scott B. Bomar with Richard Weize
Book: Scott B. Bomar
Foreword: Chris Shiflett
* Grammy nominee for Best Album Notes
* ARSC Certificate of Merit: Best Historical Research in Recorded Country, Folk, or Roots Music
* Selected by The New York Times as the best box set of the year
* Named among the best box sets of the year by Rolling Stone and Variety
* Chosen by All Music among their Favorite Compilations and Reissues
* Named #1 reissue of the year in the Nashville Scene Country Music Critics' Poll
* Featured in the Los Angeles Times' Presents on the Music Lover's Wish List
* #1 on The Philadelphia Inquirer's holiday Gift Guide for Music Lovers
* #2 on critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine's 100 Best Reissues of 2019
* Featured on NPR's Here and Now
“One of the best boxed sets of 2019….Comprehensive and exhaustive. Yet, it is never exhausting.” - Audiophile Review
"California’s hot-pickin’ electric style of country music probably had a greater impact on rock than Nashville’s, and if Ken Burns’ Country Music could’ve gone deeper on it, this ripping 10-disc overview from the esteemed Bear Family label is a corrective....essential history for fans of the Grateful Dead, Gram Parsons, and all the 'Americana' that followed." - Will Hermes, Rolling Stone
"Bomar’s empathy for the music makers and their music, and his deep research, combine to make the hardbound book in this boxed set as revealing a document of Bakersfield history as has been available thus far." - Barry Mazor, Wall Street Journal
"The accompanying 220+ page hardbound book delves into the contents with forensic detail....an unimpeachable package from the Bear and its kin; and, if it must be described as a history lesson, you won’t want to cut classes to escape it." - Goldmine
"Buck Owens and Merle Haggard were the city’s superstars, but this copious 10-CD set, which includes an extensively researched hardcover book, digs far deeper."
- New York Times
“The amazing box set…is a staggering achievement by Scott B. Bomar and his supporting team….Bomar has provided a detailed bio for every person credited with a recording, however obscure, which is a remarkable accomplishment in itself. If there was a Pulitzer Prize for box sets, it would be a unanimous choice.” - The Big Takeover
“Bomar…has produced an epic work here…that not only deserves the gratitude of Bakersfield's historians and legacy keepers, but also merits a special shout-out from the Library of Congress….a remarkable achievement well worth the retail price.” - Robert Price, The Bakersfield Californian
Hank Williams
pictures from life's other side
the man and his music in rare photos and recordings
(6 CD set + table top book, BMG)
Book: Colin Escott and Scott B. Bomar
Compilation Producer: Cheryl Pawelski
Compilation Associate Producer: Scott B. Bomar
"This is a thing of staggering beauty....the most important excavation of early country music we have seen in years. It sounds great, it looks amazing."
- Goldmine
"This belongs on the coffee table and in the CD player of any true country music fan."
- Dan Forte, Vintage Guitar
"Its worth as a cultural artifact is nigh-on priceless."
- Record Collector
The six-CD collection features 144 tracks representing the complete rundown of Hank’s performances from the existing "Mother's Best" transcription discs. While previous compilations have presented either a selection of the Mother’s Best material or all of the recordings in the context of the individual radio show presentations (along with guest vocalists and instrumental numbers), this is the first collection that gathers the entirety of Hank’s Mother’s Best performances and presents them outside the context of self-contained radio programs. Plus, they've been newly remastered by multiple Grammy winner Michael Graves to sound better than ever before!
The recordings are packaged in a slipcase with a lavish book that chronicles Hank’s career in photographs. Among them are dozens of rare and unpublished images, including pictures from the personal collections of fellow country legends Hank Williams and Little Jimmy Dickens. A handful of rare unpublished color images are also included. Some of the more familiar photos of Williams are presented with a clarity not seen in decades. Pictures from Hank’s first professional photo session are presented for the first time since being recently re-scanned from the original negatives. Now-iconic images of Hank by Nashville photographer Henry Schofield have similarly been scanned from the original sources for the first time in many years. Often-seen photographs of Hank pulse with a fresh vibrancy that will surprise even longtime fans.
Buck Owens
Complete Capitol Singles: 1967-1970
(2 CD set, Omnivore recordings)
Compilation Producer: Patrick Milligan
Album Notes: Scott B. Bomar
* Named one of Billboard's Top 10 Best Reissues of 2018
* Listed among All Music's Favorite Compilations of 2018
"...an ideal introduction to the Bakersfield sound at the end of the 1960s, just prior to the mantle officially being handed off to the likes of Merle Haggard."
- Pop Matters
Buck Owens
Complete Capitol Singles: 1971-1975
(2 CD set, Omnivore recordings)
Compilation Producer: Patrick Milligan
Album Notes: Scott B. Bomar
* One of All Music's Favorite Compilations/Reissues of 2019
* Among Hyperbolium's Essential Reissues of 2019
"The detailed liner notes penned by author/country music historian Scott B. Bomar provide welcome insight into this outstanding two-disc set."
- Desert Star Weekly
Buck Owens
country singer's
prayer
(CD, Omnivore Recordings)
Compilation Producer: Patrick Milligan
Album Notes: Scott B. Bomar
* Among the best reissues of 2018 in the Nashville Scene Country Music Critics' Poll
"After more than forty years, it’s a real treat for Owens’ many fans to have this album finally released.... even amid his personal and professional grief he found solace in music."
- No Depression
HOWDY GLENN
I can almost see houston
the complete howdy glenn
(CD + 9500 word essay, omnivore)
Album Notes: Scott B. Bomar
Compilation Producer: Scott B. Bomar & Cheryl Pawelski
"With the country-music industry, its fans and chroniclers now re-examining the unquestionably important role African-Americans have played in creating elements of the genre, in performing it, and in being a significant segment of its audience—all long underestimated and misunderstood—this forgotten pioneer has gotten another look. California country-music historian Scott B. Bomar spent years tracking down the story of the man (who died in 2012) and of his music. The result is “I Can Almost See Houston: The Complete Howdy Glenn,” an unprecedented, single-disc, 23-track career-spanning collection."
- Wall Street Journal
While Black influences are inextricably intertwined with the formation of the genre, there is a very short list of Black country performers who made a splash on the national charts or the public consciousness in the 20th century. After winning the 1974 “Trucker’s Jamboree” at the Hollywood Palladium, Inglewood California firefighter Howdy Glenn began a recording career that not only gained him regional hits on an independent label, but found him appearing to rapturous crowds whenever and wherever he performed live. After singing at the Academy of Country Music’s general meeting, he was signed to Warner Bros. Records by Andy Wickham (who had also signed Joni Mitchell, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Buck Owens, and more). Warner Bros. released his first Wickham-produced single in 1977. His second, a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Touch Me,” spent six weeks on the charts. Glenn headlined at Gilley’s in Pasadena, Texas, and found himself nominated for the ACM’s Top New Male Vocalist award. It appeared as though country music had a possible new star on the rise.
I Can Almost See Houston: The Complete Howdy Glenn collects all the recordings and reexamines the importance and legacy of Howdy Glenn. Containing all 8 of his singles, plus 6 newly mixed, previously unissued tracks from the Warner Bros. vaults, plus an outtake from his Fire Records sessions, this 23-track collection was produced for release by Grammy® nominee Scott B. Bomar (The Bakersfield Sound) and Grammy® winner Cheryl Pawelski (Hank Williams – The Garden Spot Programs, 1950). With Restoration and Mastering by Grammy® winner Michael Graves, the packaging contains photos, ephemera, and new liner notes from Bomar, outlining not only a brief history of Black artists in country music, but Howdy Glenn’s rightful place in the story.
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The other side of Bakersfield Vol. 1
1950s & 60s Boppers and rockers from 'Nashville West' Vol 1 (cd, bear family)
Producers: Scott B. Bomar & Richard Weize
Album Notes: Scott B. Bomar
"Scott B. Bomar lays out the details of this complicated story in his liner notes, which also include a terrific track-by-track overview, but the broad strokes are apparent....This wildly entertaining disc shows how hustlers, rockabilly cats, Western swing crooners, and savvy guitar players wound up constructing what the sound of Bakersfield became."
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music
2015 Grammy nominee
best album notes
the other side of bakersfielD vol. 2
1950s & 60s Boppers and rockers from 'Nashville West' Vol 2 (cd, bear family)
Producers: Scott B. Bomar & Richard Weize
Album Notes: Scott B. Bomar
"As chronicled in Scott B. Bomar’s excellent liner notes, two elements ruled the music scene in Bakersfield: volume and beat....Whether motivated by pure, pointy-headed historical curiosity or the desire to throw a hoedown in your living room, both volumes of The Other Side of Bakersfield are worth grabbing for a good time on a Saturday night."
- Randy Fox, The Nashville Scene
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Hello, I'm Red Simpson
(5 CD set + book, Bear Family)
Reissue Producer: Scott B. Bomar
Book: Scott B. Bomar
* Selected by the New York Times as a Critic's Pick among the best CD box sets of the year
* Chosen as a Favorite Box Set of the Year by the staff of All Music
"Five discs of solid gold 1960s and '70s Bakersfield truck-drivin' country." - Mojo
"The forgotten man of Bakersfield" - Bob Dylan
"There were no reissues that I enjoyed more than Bear Family's complete box set of truck driving country king Red Simpson." - Stephen Thomas Erlewine, who named Hello, I'm Red Simpson his favorite reissue of the year.
"If you like underdog stories and 18-wheelers, make room in your life for this boxed set. In the Bakersfield hard-country scene of the 1960s Buck Owens was clearly the boss: bandleader, singer, songwriter, publisher, celebrity. But in the circle of creativity around him there was Red Simpson, a singer-songwriter who took his own talent much less seriously, and almost accidentally ended up as one of the four giants of truck-driving music."
- Ben Ratliff, New York Times
Red Simpson made a name for himself in country music with a string of blacktop anthems like Roll Truck Roll, The Highway Patrol, Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves, Country Western Truck Drivin' Singer, Awful Lot To Learn About Truck Drivin', and Truck Driver's Heaven. He popularized the romanticized image of the trucker as a modern-day cowboy of the open road. But there was much more to Red Simpson. Raised in Bakersfield, California, Red was at the center of the vibrant honky tonk scene that spawned Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. A multi-instrumentalist who composed hundreds of songs, Red Simpson earned a reputation as one of the West Coast's most respected songwriters. Buck and Merle recorded more than 40 of Red Simpson's songs, including Top 10 hits such as Gonna Have Love, Sam's Place, Kansas City Song, Close Up The Honky Tonks, and You Don't Have Very Far To Go.
This set includes all of Red Simpson's recordings from 1957 until 1984, giving a comprehensive look at the artist Bob Dylan called "the forgotten man of Bakersfield." All the songs on his seven Capitol LPs are here, together with his singles for Capitol, Portland, and independent labels. All of his hit singles are included, as are unreleased Capitol masters, eighteen previously unissued demo recordings, Red Simpson's own versions of hits he wrote for Buck Owens, and dozens of songs that appear on CD for the first time. This set also contains a 108-page hardcover book that features a complete discography, many unseen photos, and a detailed biography documenting the colorful and sometimes volatile career of the truck music poet.
the cokers
we're gonna bop
(cd, Bear family)
Producer: Scott B. Bomar & Richard Weize
Album Notes: Scott B. Bomar
"A fine collection"
- Vintage Rock magazine
"Their ability to flit between scaled-down big-band pop, hillbilly, country boogie, and proto-rockabilly is impressive."
- All Music
The six members of the Coker Family were a popular staple of the rockabilly-infused West Coast country scene of the mid-1950s. Alvadean and Sandy were regular performers on the influential Town Hall Party, and the Cokers - in various incarnations - recorded a total of 30 songs for both the Abbott label in Los Angeles and the Decca label in Nashville.
billy Mize
1958 demos for cash
(10" vinyl, RWA Records)
Reissue Producer: Scott B. Bomar & Richard Weize
Album Notes: Scott B. Bomar
"The amazing thing is Billy's ability to write and record songs which would have fit Johnny perfectly. In fact, they also could be long lost demos recorded by the man himself, absolutely amazing." - East Coast Rockabilly Central
While not a household name, Billy Mize was nominated for 23 Academy of Country Music Awards between 1965 and 1973. He won several, including Most Promising Male Vocalist in 1966 and Television Personality of the Year in 1965, 1966, and 1967. In 1969 he was nominated for Television Personality once again, but lost out to another country singer who hosted his own show. The winner that time was Johnny Cash. But that wasn't the first time these two country music luminaries' lives and careers intersected. In March of 1959, Johnny Cash recorded "Clementine" at the same session where he cut "Five Feet High And Rising." Both songs would appear on Johnny's Songs Of Our Soil album that September. The latter was written by Cash, himself, while Clementine came from the pen of Billy Mize. Here, for the first time, are the demos of all six songs that Billy Mize wrote for Johnny Cash. They were recently re-discovered in a garage among several nearly-forgotten recordings, and provide a fascinating snapshot of a regional West Coast country star showing off his skills for writing songs that were strategically targeted to a specific artist. In addition to "Clementine," Johnny Cash fans now have the chance to peek behind the curtain and experience a rare collection of demos as Cash heard them decades ago.
ferlin husky
gonna shake this shack
(cd, Bear family)
Reissue Producer: Stefan Kohne
Co-Producer & Album Notes: Scott B. Bomar
"The set contains thirty-two tracks of country bop, proto-rockabilly and comedy that should prove enjoyable to everyone, along with Bear’s usual impeccable digital re-mastering and an informative seventy-two page booklet."
- My Kind of Country
While smooth Nashville Sound hits such as "Gone" and "The Wings Of A Dove" came to define him, Ferlin was just as likely to rock as he was to croon! This compilation features 32 examples of his ability to capture the verve of country bop, proto-rockabilly, and the rural strains that informed early rock and roll. He pulls it off, not because he's putting us on, but because this music is truly one of the many sides of the multi-talented Country Music Hall of Famer.
Hank thompson
the pathway of my life, 1966-1986
(8 CD set + 128 page hardback book, Bear family)
Compilation Producers: Scott B. Bomar & Richard Weize
Book: Scott B. Bomar
"This is more than a worthwhile collection and well worth investigating, both for long time fans, and those who've never heard this legendary performer."
- Alan Cackett
This second Bear Family box set of Hank Thompson's studio recordings includes all his post-Capitol recordings during the twenty-year period from 1966 through 1986. It was an era when Hank would experiment with new sounds while repeatedly returning to the unparalleled brand of honky-tonk-infused Western swing that made him a legend.
The book features an in-depth essay drawn from nearly twenty new interviews with those closest to Hank, and detailing the evolution of a legacy artist finding his place in a changing country music marketplace while continually reasserting the magic of the Thompson touch.
