The Birth of the Bakersfield Sound

Lawton Jiles is a charter member of the Bakersfield Country Music Museum who led Buck Owens' band in 1961 and 1962. He is a singer/songwriter who has had songs recorded by T. Texas Tyler, Patsy Cline, Porter Wagoner, Janie Frickie, Norma Jean, Carl Belew, and others, as well as a number of cuts by European artists. The accounting firm Lawton and his wife Ruth owned represented several musicians, and he also owned and managed a music publishing company and recording studio. Many times, he worked all day in consulting then headed straight to the studio to work late into the night.