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Collins, Dallas Frazier, Buck Owens, Al Brumley, Bobby
Durham, Merle Haggard, Red Simpson, and others. After
a nearly six-year recording career in California,
I Feel Better
All Over
was the very first song Husky recorded in
Nashville. At first, it sounds like a routine country toe-
tapper, until the last 45 seconds when Ferlin’s voice jumps
an octave and the band bursts into a proto-rockabilly
gallop reflecting the pre-rock and roll brand of super-
charged country that had been an integral part of Husky’s
Bakersfield experience. Rocked-up California country had
arrived in Music City!
L. S. Payne worked at Economy Used Cars in Bakersfield in
the mid-1950s while appearing on his own radio show on KTKR,
and moonlighting as a country singer and band leader at the Derby Acres Ballroom near
Taft, California. He recorded two platters for local labels,
My Walkin’ Shoes
being the first.
The Fire label for which he recorded it was partially owned by Bill Woods and R. B. ‘Chris’
Christensen, who also launched the Bakersfield Records imprint with their partner Johnny
Cuviello around the same time. Despite the fantastic tag line,
“If It’s Hot It’s On Fire,”
the
2.
My Walkin’ Shoes
(Dusty Payne-Johnny Cuviello-Chris Christensen)
Fire 111
