William Robert Mize (April 29, 1929 – October 29, 2017) was an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer-songwriter, steel guitarist, band leader, and TV show host.

Biography

Mize was born in

Arkansas City, Kansas Arkansas City () is a city in Cowley County, Kansas, United States, situated at the confluence of the Arkansas and Walnut rivers in the southwestern part of the county. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,974. Pronunc ...

, United States, but raised in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, an area steeped in

thanks to relocated " Okies". He originally learned to play guitar as a child, but fell in love with the

steel guitar A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar i ...

he received for his 18th birthday. Mize moved to

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of th ...

and formed his own band playing local gigs and also working as a disc jockey on KPMC. In 1953, he, Bill Woods and Herb Henson put together a local TV show called The Cousin Herb Trading Post Show on KERO-TV Bakersfield (then channel 10), where he became affectionately known as Billy The Kid. The signal from that show was so strong the show could be seen as far as

Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

, all the way over to the central coast and Los Angeles. The show was popular because it not only featured fledgling acts such as

Buck Owens Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was the frontman for The Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on the ''Billboard'' country music chart. He pioneered what came ...

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in country music, he was a central pioneer of the Bakersfield ...

, Tommy Collins,

Jean Shepard Ollie Imogene "Jean" Shepard (November 21, 1933 – September 25, 2016), was an American country singer who was considered one of the genre's first significant female artists. Her commercial success ran from the 1950s to the 1970s while also be ...

Bonnie Owens Bonnie Owens (born Bonnie Campbell; October 1, 1929 – April 24, 2006) was an American country music singer who was married to Buck Owens and later to Merle Haggard. Biography She was born Bonnie Campbell in Blanchard, Oklahoma, United Sta ...

Ferlin Husky Ferlin Eugene Husky (December 3, 1925 – March 17, 2011) was an American country music singer who was equally adept at honky-tonk, ballads, spoken recitations, rockabilly and pop tunes. From 1948 to 1953, he recorded under the stage name Terry ...

, but many national acts such as

Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...

and

Patsy Cline Patsy Cline (born Virginia Patterson Hensley; September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963) was an American singer. One of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century, she was known as one of the first country music artists to successfully Cross ...

. He stayed with the show for thirteen years. In 1955, Mize began to appear on a local Los Angeles television show hosted by Hank Penny. By 1957, he was working on seven different weekly shows in the LA area, including ''The Hank Penny Show'', ''The Cal Worthington Show'', '' Country Music Time'' and ''

Town Hall Party ''Town Hall Party'' is an American country music and rockabilly entertainment program originating in Southern California. It was initially broadcast on radio in 1951 and then on television beginning in 1953. The first radio broadcast was in Autum ...

''. He recorded for

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

(Solid Sender/It Could happen - 1957), Challenge and Liberty, finally hitting the country charts in 1966 with "You Can't Stop Me" for Columbia. That same year he began hosting and performing on ''

Gene Autry's Melody Ranch ''Gene Autry's Melody Ranch'' is a Western variety radio show in the United States. A 15-minute pilot show aired on December 31, 1939. The program ran from January 7, 1940 to August 1, 1943, and from September 23, 1945 to May 16, 1956.French, ...

'' network show on

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is ...

as well as starting his own syndicated ''Billy Mize Show'' from Bakersfield. During the next decade he managed eleven chart hits as well as writing hits for others, such as "Who Will Buy The Wine" ( Charlie Walker), "My Baby Walks All Over Me" (

Johnny Sea John Allan Seay, Jr. (July 15, 1940 – May 14, 2016) was an American country music singer, professionally known as Johnny Sea or Johnny Seay. His first hits came in the late 1950s, and his career saw a resurgence in the mid-1960s, particularly w ...

) and "Don't Let The Blues Make You Bad" (

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...

). Martin cut three of his songs in one day in June 1966, including "Terrible Tangled Web". He won the

Academy of Country Music The Academy of Country Music (ACM) was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Among the founders were Eddie Miller (songwriter), Eddie Miller, Tommy Wiggins, and Mickey and Chris ...

's "TV Personality of the Year" award three years in a row between 1965 and 1967. In 1972, he taped two pilots of the "Billy Mize Music Hall", which he hoped to sell into national syndication but it was not picked up. A critically acclaimed documentary chronicling the life of Mize and his impact on the country music industry was released in 2015. Directed by William J Saunders and titled ''Billy Mize and the Bakersfield Sound'', it screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2014. Mize died on October 29, 2017, at the age of 88."Bakersfield Sound legend Billy Mize dies at age 88"
Bakersfieldnow.com, November 2, 2017.

Discography

*''Solid Sender/It Could Happen'' (

, 1957) *''Please Don't Let The Blues Make You Bad'' ( Columbia, 1965) *''You Can't Stop Me'' ( Columbia, 1966) *''It's Gonna Get Lonely'' ( Columbia, 1966) *''Lights Of Albuquerque'' ( Columbia, 1967) *''This Time and Place'' ( Imperial, 1969) *''You're All Right With Me'' (

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

, 1971) *''Love'N'Stuff'' (

Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...

, 1976) *''Billy Mize's Tribute To Swing'' (G&M, 1986) *''A Salute to Swing'' ( Hag Records, 2006) *''Make it Rain'' ( Sharecropper Records, 2006)

Singles

References

External links

Billy Mize official website
Official Billy Mize website with biography and documentary information.

Cousin Herb's TV Cousins. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mize, Billy 1929 births 2017 deaths American country singer-songwriters Musicians from Bakersfield, California Bakersfield sound Singer-songwriters from California Country musicians from California