Bakersfield, Kern County
In the 1950s the honky-tonks of Bakersfield turned out a louder, twangier kind of country music built on electric guitars and a driving beat. Buck Owens and Merle Haggard carried the Bakersfield Sound to national radio. Owens later built the Crystal Palace, a music hall and museum in town that presented live shows for nearly three decades after opening in 1996.