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Joy Bids Farewell to Historic Bakersfield Studio

By admin ⋅ May 6, 2008 ⋅ Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Homer Joy has bid an emotional farewell to the studio which put one of his songs center stage in the history of Country music.

Buck Owens’ old studio - at the old River Theater on North Chester Avenue, Bakersfield - closed its doors for the last time at midnight (April 30).

Just hours before the lights went out and the “tapes” rolled for the final time, Homer Joy revisited the place where he made the original recording of “The Streets Of Bakersfield” in 1972.

The song became a huge number 1 hit when it was re-recorded by Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens. Few people realize the original was by Homer Joy.

Joy admits: “It came about as a protest song. I was kinda mad when I wrote that song.”

He put the words and music together after spending nights stomping the streets of the Californian town fuming about the way Buck Owens’ studio was refusing to record him. He ended up in his motel room with only a guitar for company, and spent just minutes writing what would become a Country music classic.

The studio had promised him the chance to record his own material in return for working on a collection of Hank Williams songs.

Joy said: “They said they didn’t have enough time, that the Buckaroos were rehearsing to go on tour and they were gonna have to put my deal off.

“So I told ‘em: ‘I’m not leaving town until you keep your end of the bargain.’I kept going back every day to the studio and they kept telling me the same thing.’

Ten hours after he wrote “Streets Of Bakersfield”, he played it to producer Bob Morris. He called Owens in and within hours, they were in the Oildale Studio recording the song.

Sitting in the control room for the first time in 34 years, Joy was emotional, but evidently grateful too.

He said: “I’m thinking of all the things that happened in this building for me. It’s just a little hard to get your head around sometimes. For a little while today, I was 25 years old. I saw, felt all the old guys in there. Don … Don (Rich) was there. Buck was there.”

“The Streets Of Bakersfield just made everything all right. It’s been such a blessing to all of us over the years: to Buck, and to Bob (Morris) - Bless his heart.

“Just a whole lot of people who can remember back to that time and that song and have some really good memories and good feelings about it.”

The building is still owned by the Owens’ family. From 1992 until 2005, it was run by Rick Davis as Fat Tracks studio and from 2005 to April this year, it ran as Pig Studio.

As he shared part of his last day in the famous building with Joy, Davis said : “This has been a place, since 1969, where musicians come to be creative. You can feel it when you walk in.”

Demand for small recording studios has hit an all time low across the USA as more and more musicians are able to record at home using technology Joy and Owens couldn’t even dream of in 1972.

Yesterday, in the studio with it’s green foam sound proofing blocks and sixties decor, the only sign of the 1970’s technology is an old reel-to-reel tape machine standing idle in the corner.

Davis does not think the studio will reopen.

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• Joy is preparing to release the second single from his album, “Someday It’ll Be Country” (BUY IT NOW!)

The first single, “John Law” was a duet with Buck Owens - the last known recording by Owens. It made the top of the Independent Music Network charts a record breaking seven times in as many months and is now getting extended airplay in Europe and across the world!

Homerjoy.com / Homer Joy at Myspace

(this article, by John D. Lewis, was originally printed at rodeoattitude.com)