Zócalo Public Square

If there’s anything bigger than oil in Bakersfield, it might be music. It’s hard to think of the town without the sounds of Buck, Merle, Korn, and The Lighthouse Boys. But is Bakersfield still creating new musical traditions that reflect a changing Kern County? At an event co-presented by the James Irvine Foundation,legendary music engineer Jim Shaw of the Buckaroos, singer and economic development official Jennifer Keel Faughn, and local musician and entertainment writer Matt Munoz talked with Bakersfield Californian executive editor Robert Price about what Bakersfield sounds like now.