California Country

It ain't what it used to be

Comments (0) By Chet Flippo Wednesday, Dec 1 1999

As for the Eagles, they were the logical extension of years of folkies and borderline country artists striving to fuse rock and country. They were years ahead of the sound that '90s country radio found most palatable: not music that would draw in listeners, but music that wouldn't drive them away.

Ultimately, California couldn't hold on to its country. It could neither support nor build upon its institutions. UCLA was, in 1965, home to the prestigious John Edwards Memorial Foundation, a center of country-music scholarship that could have rivaled the Country Music Foundation and Hall of Fame in Nashville. Neglected and unwanted, the JEMF packed up in 1983 and headed for Chapel Hill, where it was welcomed by the University of North Carolina. And there never came to be a geographical rallying point in California: no Grand Ole Opry or Music Row. The Palomino in North Hollywood came as close as any place, and it now lies dormant.

In Nashville, at least, California will long be remembered for giving it Jimmy Bowen. From New Mexico, Bowen was a teenage rock star who ended up in L.A., where he produced hits for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin. Then he left in 1977 for Music City and took charge of the place -- reworking the country studio system, running nine different record companies at one time or another, and giving the world Garth Brooks. California's ultimate revenge.

WORKIN' MAN BLUES | By GERALD W. HASLAM, with RICHARD CHON and ALEXANDRA HASLAM RUSSELL | University of California Press | 380 pages | $30 hardcover