Singer-Songwriter Victoria Bailey Pays Tribute to the Bakersfield Sound
Huntington Beach, CA-based classic country singer-songwriter Victoria Bailey sounds like she comes from another era when country musicians didn’t aspire to crossover into the pop world. She’ll release “Skid Row,” the second single from her forthcoming album, on July 17. The song serves as a tribute to L.A. honky tonk and the Bakersfield sound. It follows “Honky Tonk Woman,” which was released last month.
“I wanted to take listeners down the road of a few of the country legends rooted in California and the music history that blossomed out of Bakersfield,” says Bailey. “There is an inevitable charm that country music has when it comes from the South, but I have found so much inspiration from the music that came out of my own home state of California. There’s currently a great scene in Los Angeles of an emerging classic country sound as well, and, in the song, I sing about the one and only honky tonk in LA that rests right in the middle of Skid Row.”
Bailey will release her new album, Jesus, Red Wine & Patsy Cline, on Sept. 14, 2020.
Produced by Jeremy Long, Jesus, Red Wine & Patsy Cline is a “whiskey-smooth concoction of crisp guitars, silky fiddle, and radiant pedal steel that expertly glides beneath Bailey’s magnetic, California sun-kissed soprano.”
The nine-song collection features eight originals and one cover as Bailey “shines a relevant light on some of the shadier corners of the genre not typically addressed, such as the hypocrisy that can be found in the outlaw country mindset. “
Raised in SoCal, the classic country singer-songwriter was surrounded by music in her household from an early age. Her dad played in a rock band and her mom exposed her to the narrative-driven songbooks of folk icons like Cat Stevens and James Taylor. After Bailey started writing songs as a teenage, her father asked his three musically-inclined best friends to join him in becoming his daughter’s backing band, eventually performing shows around town.
It was the at-first daunting yet exhilarating aspect of performing live that made Bailey realize this was life’s path for her. She found a sense of community very early on by playing honky tonks and bars that allowed the opportunity to cut her teeth on the craft of traditional country music.
On Jesus, Red Wine & Patsy Cline, Bailey weaves these honest stories together for a “refreshing examination of real-life American trials and tribulations through her heartfelt lens.”
“I hope that listeners get to know me and my story through this album, and what I love the most in life,” she says. “Just to be brought back into what classic country captures and makes people feel good about, I hope that it resonates in that same way.”
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bailey is unable to tour right now. Fans eager to see her live can catch her livestreaming on her Facebook and Instagram pages.
Photo credit: Amanda Canton
