Billy Mize

In the 50s and 60s, Bakersfield, California bore witness to the emergence of a uniquely talented collective of musicians. Together, they birthed a genre that both lyrically and sonically indexed their particular life experience, challenged the established musical tastes of the Nashville scene, and permanently altered the landscape of country music. They called it The Bakersfield Sound. Along with Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, Billy Mize, a vocalist, instrumentalist, and songwriter, is known as one of the Bakersfield legends. Mize played pedal steel in the rough honky tonk circuit in Bakersfield despite being too young to legally enter bars. He soon became a regular on The Cousin Herb Trading Post Show. In 1957, his popularity grew to the extent that, for several years, he managed to appear on seven Los Angeles television stations weekly, includingTown Hall Party, and still maintained his Bakersfield commitments.

He naturally developed into a television personality and, in 1966, became host of Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, the biggest country music variety show on the west coast. He is one of the founding members of the Country Music Association an organization designed to challenge Nashvilles monopoly on country music. His music has been covered by Merle Haggard, Charlie Walker, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to name a few. There is a critically acclaimed documentary about Mize’s life titled, Billy Mize and the Bakersfield Sound.