Tehachapi News

Jimmy Phillips: from labor camp to musical stage for the Bakersfield Sound

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Last week’s column introduced readers to Jimmy Phillips, who has operated Jim’s Barber Shop in Tehachapi for the past 33 years. He was raised in Dust Bowl era labor camp in Arvin, picking cotton with his family for the wage of two and a half cents a pound. Jim and his family worked their way out of poverty, and this is the continuation of his story.

When Jim was in the third grade at Vineland School in Arvin, he took drum lessons from teacher Lawrence Foster. He started out with just a pair of sticks, banging out rhythms on a metal folding chair since he didn’t own a single drum or even a practice drum head.

Despite the limitations of his “folding metal drum set,” young Jimmy had a natural feel for percussion. He stuck with drumming and got better and better, until his Dad, Atwood Risner, bought Jimmy his first drum set when he was 14. A new world was opening up for Jim that didn’t involve the labor camp or the cotton fields.

With a real drum set, Jimmy’s talent was obvious and people began to want him playing in their band. A group formed called the Lamont Rockabillies that featured Jimmy Phillips on drums, and it is regarded as the very first rock n’ roll band to arise in Kern County.

When he was 15 years old, he was invited to play with Jolly Jody and His Go Daddies, which was Jimmy’s first professional gig. The band leader, Jolly Jody, was a 45-year-old standup bass player and he held auditions for eight different drummers. Despite his age, Jim got the job.

When Jolly Jody brought in the new drummer, another band member observed “But he’s just a baby!” Once he heard Jimmy play, however, he was convinced and Jimmy joined the band, getting paid and playing gigs in Bakersfield and other towns in Central California.

About this time, Jimmy also came up with a new cadence for his school’s marching band. Practically all marching bands used the same military-style cadence, and when he was a junior in high school Jimmy thought it was time for a new one.

 He spent a lot of time coming up with a new one and it caught on. The new drum cadence spread to Bakersfield College, and more schools began using it. Jimmy was even invited to attend USC because the assistant director of the band program wanted Jimmy drumming for the Trojans.

As you’ve probably concluded, Jimmy Phillips is not a drummer of average talent. He is, in fact, an amazingly good drummer —  as fine a drummer as country music has seen. He has played drums on more than 50 different albums.

And who has he backed on drums? Country music legends such as Buck Owens, Barbara Mandrell, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, Rose Maddox, Jelly Sanders and many more.

Jimmy was one of the original Kern Country musicians responsible for the “Bakersfield Sound,” a clean, twangy but straightforward style of country music that featured exceptional instrumentalists, clear vocalists and songs that made good use of powerful bass playing and drumming.

Buck Owens and Merle Haggard are two of the most famous names in the Bakersfield Sound pantheon, but there are dozens of lesser-known names that supported them and contributed to the development of that distinctive style of music. Jimmy Phillips is one of these.

The second drum set Jimmy ever owned, a gold-colored Ludwig drum kit, is a permanent part of the country music exhibit at the Kern County Museum. 

Another less famous but incredible musician was the great Joe Maphis, known as “King of the Strings,”one of the most talented guitarists who ever played country music. And quite possibly the fastest ever.

“Joe Maphis could play guitar so fast that I was the only one outta Bakersfield that could keep up with him,” Jimmy told me. “I’m not sayin’ that in a boastful way, it’s just the way it was. They used to call me to Las Vegas all the time for two-week gigs to play at the Golden Nugget. Joe was simply amazing.”

Go to YouTube and watch the video of Joe Maphis performing “Pickin’ and Singin’,” an amazing rendition that features Maphis playing his famous double-necked guitar, as well as fiddle, mandolin, banjo and bass.

While music was (and still is) a vital part of Jimmy’s life, he supported himself and his family in another way: as a barber. He graduated from Moler Barber College in Bakersfield in 1961 and began work at Al Moody’s Kentucky Barber Shop.

Also in 1961 he married a high school acquaintance, Charlotte Garrett, and that marriage produced two daughters, Adwina and Kayla.

Jimmy was combining barbering and touring then, often leaving for a couple of weeks at a time to play music in Nevada and elsewhere, and the difficulties with being gone helped end his marriage after four years.

While working at the Padre Barber Shop next to the old Padre Hotel in downtown Bakersfield, he saw a good-lucking clerk there and went up and told her “Someone would like to meet you!”

She replied “Oh really? Who?”

“Well, me!” was Jimmy’s response. She agreed to go on a date with him and he took her to see a show by fiddler Jelly Sanders and his band — musicians frequently take their dates to musical performances.

Jimmy and Diane married in 1966 and are still going strong today. Together they had a son, Kevin, who was raised in Tehachapi and still lives here.

Many musicians tried to get Jimmy to travel with them, most notably the great Marty Robbins, and Jimmy would record with them in the studio, but he wouldn’t put his life on hold to tour.

“I’d lost my family once to touring, and I wasn’t going to do it again,” Jimmy explained. “A lot of negative things happen when people are on the road. I figured I could stay and work on my own in the barber shop, make more money and get to record with more people than if I went off touring with one band.”

Jimmy first went out on his own when he opened Jim’s Barber Shop in Mojave in 1974, and then moved it to Tehachapi in 1976 when the Old Towne shopping area first started. He moved into a highly-personalized barber shop that Lee White built specifically for him.

He’s been there ever since, though he did move across the driveway. Jimmy still works five days a week, cutting hair and even offering straight razor shaves. Many of his customers have been with him since he opened in Tehachapi, and a few have even followed him from Bakersfield —  more than 40 years of loyalty.

In fact, Jimmy gave me the last real haircut I had, some years ago. He is a perfectionist and a true professional, and has never had anyone else work at Jim’s Barber Shop but him. It is a one-man show and he approaches his work with the same craftsmanship and dedication he applies to his drumming.

He is still active in music, releasing a popular country gospel album called “Pray Every Day” and drumming with Tommy Hayes, Tracy Barnes, Maria Weir Werth, Jerry Mulkins and others.

It’s been a good life despite his early hardships, and Jimmy is thankful for all that he has. The child of the Dust Bowl grew up to earn respect, success and satisfaction.

Have a good week. 

Raised in a Labor Camp
song by Jimmy Phillips

“I was raised in a labor camp
By now things wasn’t so bad
We had a lot of problems
But that’s not all we ever had

Good food on the table
Hot biscuits in the mornin’
Playground for all the kids to play
Good schools there for learnin’

There was a little post office
And a little bitty store
A little library and much much more

The preacher would come on Sunday
In a little green building we’d all pray
And thank the Lord for a good day

We had love, plenty of love
And a life we could be proud of

Mom and Dad taught a way of life
That good things don’t come easy
You got to work for what you get
And what you get will please you

We had love, plenty of love
And a life we could be proud of”