The Crystal Palace, a music and dining joint in Bakersfield launched by Buck Owens \u2014 which hosted just about every country music star in America over the years \u2014 has abruptly shut its doors.<\/p>\n
The closure of the temple of country music, an important piece of San Joaquin Valley history, prompted an outpouring of grief from fans across the country \u2014 along with desperate pleas to stars such as Dwight Yoakam, Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift, who all played there, to save the day by buying the place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is so sad,\u201d one person wrote on the Crystal Palace Instagram, tagging Dwight Yoakam and Garth Brooks and pleading with them to \u201ckeep the Crystal Palace open!\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Archival photo of Buck Owens Crystal Palace, located at 2800 Buck Owens Blvd.<\/p>\n
(Eliza Green \/ The Bakersfield Californian)<\/p>\n
Jim Shaw, director of the Buck Owens Private Foundation, which has owned the Crystal Palace since Owens\u2019 death in 2006, said the closure, which was announced Monday, has \u201cbeen coming for a while, and I\u2019ve dreaded seeing it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaw said the pandemic, along with a slowing economy and the increasingly tight margins for the restaurant business, all combined to make it \u201ca tough business.\u201d Plus, he added, members of the Owens family involved in the business \u201care in their mid- to late 70s. We\u2019ve done what we can.\u201d <\/p>\n
Shaw himself, who is a keyboard player and a former leader of Owen\u2019s band the Buckaroos, is 78. He\u2019s been with Owens since he left Fresno State to join the band in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
By that point, Owens had already changed country music \u2014 and Bakersfield.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Patrons enjoy their dinner while Cody Gates, the night\u2019s musical guest in this September 2022 image, performs on stage at Buck Owens\u2019 Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
(Eliza Green \/ The Bakersfield Californian)<\/p>\n
A child of the Dust Bowl, Owens was born in Texas and spent much of his childhood in Arizona before popping up in Bakersfield\u2018s nascent music club scene. He brought a twangy sound to country ballads, and by the 1950s and 1960s, that sound had turned his city into a western rival to Nashville. Some of his hits included \u201cTogether Again,\u201d \u201cCrying Time,\u201d \u201cLove\u2019s Gonna Live Here,\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve Got a Tiger by the Tail\u201d and \u201cUnder Your Spell Again.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also included \u201cStreets of Bakersfield,\u201d<\/a> which became a late-career hit with Yoakam and included these lyrics: \u201cHow many of you that sit and judged me ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cBakersfield Sound\u201d was further cemented by another one-time member of Owens\u2019 band, Merle Haggard, who played with the Buckaroos briefly in the 1960s.<\/p>\n In 1996, Owens opened the Crystal Palace, an all-in-one restaurant, concert venue and museum of the star\u2019s life, located at 2800 Buck Owens Blvd. Though it has fewer than 600 seats, famous country music stars made regular pilgrimages.<\/p>\n Shaw said he is trying to avoid heartbreak by focusing on \u201cthe fact that we had an incredible 28 years. Pretty much anybody in country music played here \u2026 Taylor Swift, and Garth Brooks, and Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, Brad Paisley.\u201d<\/p>\n Brooks, he noted, famously proposed to his wife Trisha Yearwood there in 2005.<\/p>\n Swift played the stage at the age of 16, he said, accompanied to Bakersfield by her mother.<\/p>\n Garth Brooks performed at Buck Owens Crystal Palace in Bakersfield as part of his 2005 Dive Bar Tour of small venues in the midst of his summer stadium tour. <\/p>\n (Randy Lewis\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n And Yoakam played the palace too many times to count. \u201cI loved him,\u201d Yoakam told The Times in 2007, shortly after Owens\u2019 death,<\/a> noting that their relationship was \u201cpart friend, part sibling, and a whole lot surrogate parent.\u201d<\/p>\n The Buck Owens Foundation listed the building for sale last year<\/a>. While there was plenty of \u201ctire kickers,\u201d Shaw noted, there have been no takers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n