William Robert Mize (April 29, 1929 – October 29, 2017) was an American steel guitarist, band leader, vocalist, songwriter, 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 River and Walnut River in the southwestern part of the county. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,974. The n ...

, United States, but raised in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, an area steeped in

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

thanks to relocated "

Okies An Okie is a person identified with the state of Oklahoma. This connection may be residential, ethnic, historical or cultural. For most Okies, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Oklahoman. ...

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

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) 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 conve ...

he received for his 18th birthday. Mize moved to

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

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 KERO-TV (channel 23) is a television station in Bakersfield, California, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on 21st Street in Downtown Bakersfield, and its transmitter i ...

-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 major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

, 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 Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professionally as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and band leader. He was the lead singer for the Buckaroos, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which had 21 ...

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled af ...

, Tommy Collins,

Jean Shepard Ollie Imogene "Jean" Shepard (November 21, 1933 – September 25, 2016) was an American honky-tonk singer-songwriter who pioneered for women in country music. Shepard released a total of 73 singles to the Hot Country Songs chart, one of which ...

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

Ferlin Husky Ferlin Eugene Husky (December 3, 1925 – March 17, 2011) was an early American country music singer who was equally adept at the genres of traditional honky-tonk, ballads, spoken recitations, and rockabilly pop tunes. He had two dozen top-20 hit ...

, but many national acts such as

Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...

and

Patsy Cline Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among I ...

. 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 Herbert Clayton Penny (September 18, 1918 – April 17, 1992) was an American musician who played banjo mainly in the Western swing genre. He also worked as a comedian best known for his backwoods character "That Plain Ol' Country Boy" on TV wi ...

. By 1957, he was working on seven different weekly shows in the LA area, including ''The Hank Penny Show'', ''The

Cal Worthington Calvin Coolidge Worthington (November 27, 1920 – September 8, 2013) was an American car dealer, best known on the West Coast of the United States, and to a more limited extent elsewhere, from minor appearances and parodies in a number of movi ...

Show'', ''

Country Music Time ''Country Music Time'' is an album recorded by Kitty Wells and released in 1962 on the Decca label (DL 4197). Wells was accompanied on the album by the Jordanaires The Jordanaires were an American vocal quartet that formed as a gospel group in ...

'' and ''

Town Hall Party ''Town Hall Party'' was an American country music program, firstly broadcast on radio and then television The first radio broadcast was in Autumn 1951 by stations KXLA-AM in Pasadena, California and KFI-AM in Los Angeles, California The televis ...

''. He recorded for

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

(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, Jack ...

'' network show on

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

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 ...

) 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. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...

). 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 as the Country & Western Music Academy. Among the founders were Eddie Miller, Tommy Wiggins, and Mickey and Chris Christensen. They wanted to promote country music ...

'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. 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 Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

, 1969) *''You're All Right With Me'' (

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

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

Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...

, 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