Country Music Hall Of Fame Honors Bakersfield Sound

Nashville wasn't the only hot spot for country music. California produced its share of hits, many with a distinctive mix of honky-tonk, rockabilly and Western swing. The music of Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and others from California will be celebrated at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum starting in March 2012. “The Bakersfield Sound” will fill 5,000-square feet of exhibition space at the museum in Nashville. Not only will it give due to Buck and Merle, but to many others such as Bill Woods, Herb Henson, Billy Mize, Fuzzy Owen and Bonnie Owens, who was divorced from both Buck and Merle and was a performer in her own right. “The Bakersfield Sound” will be narrated by Dwight Yoakam, who remade Buck's 1973 hit “Streets of Bakersfield” in 1988 as a duet with Buck. The exhibit opens March 24th and runs until the end of 2013.