Arriving in the Kern County capitol in early
1953, Barton established the city’s first
hillbilly record labels, Mar-Vel and Grande,
in coordination with R. B. ‘Chris’ Christensen,
a would-be impresario of little means and
big dreams who soaked up Barton’s flair for
hustling up a good scheme. Though Bill
Woods and his Orange Blossom Playboys,
featuring Billy Mize and Cliff Crofford,
became the first commercial country
recording act from Bakersfield when they cut
two sides for Los Angeles’ Modern label in
1949, Barton gave Woods his first chance to
record for a local label when he cut his Mar-
Vel debut in 1953. At the time, Woods led
the house band at the Blackboard Cafe,
which included a young guitar player named
Buck Owens. The lead singer on Woods’ first
Mar-Vel record was Lewis Talley, an Arkansas
native who, along with his cousin Fuzzy Owen (no relation to Buck Owens), was a fixture
on the Bakersfield honky-tonk scene.
By 1953, Barton recorded Fuzzy Owen and his girlfriend Bonnie Owens (also, thankfully,
no relation, though Bonnie was formerly related to - and recently divorced from - Buck
Owens). The two sang a duet Barton had written called
A Dear John Letter
.
“I had a friend who was a DJ back in Arkansas
,” Fuzzy explained,
“and he started
playin’ that record that Bonnie and I did of it, and it went to number one on that station.
”
Fuzzy and Lewis Talley saw an opportunity.
“I figured the song was a hit
,” Talley recounted,
“and I traded a 1947 Kaiser for it
.” Lewis then sold half the song to Owen for $150.
Barton’s name was removed from the songwriting credits and replaced by Owen and
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