Cars, Coffee, and Memories-

Monthly Car Show is a Win for Everyone

A classic car from nearly ninety years ago on display at Cars and Coffee Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

Tom Bustos remembers the day a car show provided a once-in-lifetime experience for a local woman. Back in 2022, a family cleaned up an old Dodge Dart that was exactly like the one their mom had back in her youth.

The family surprised the mom by taking her to the Cars and Conversation Merced show.

“They made sure the car was there before she arrived, Tom recalls. “She had no idea that this car was going to be part of their family that day. It was a joy to watch that reveal unfold.”

This Oldsmobile is one of many classics on display at the monthly Cars and Coffee Merced show held on the first Saturday of each month from March through October at the Merced Mall north parking lot. Photo: Steve Newvine

Personal stories like these keep Tom and his wife Emily putting on the monthly car show in the north parking lot at Merced Mall.

Cars and Coffee Merced started when Emily and Tom thought the time was right for a car show that was free, family friendly, and not too narrow in focus.

“There were a lot of shows, but they were very specific about car types or time periods,” Emily said. “We wanted a venue that was open to everyone, and any kind of car.”

From that basic concept emerged Cars and Coffee Merced. The property manager at Merced Mall offered the north parking area for displays, Merced Car Wash emerged as a partner to hold the events, and Jantz Bakery offered to provide morning coffee.

The couple use social media to let people know about upcoming car shows. Word-of-mouth has also helped spread the word.

On the first Saturday of every month beginning in March, Cars and Coffee Merced welcomes the cars, their owners, and the public for a few hours of nostalgia, reconnection, and car talk.

“We’ve been hosting Cars and Coffee in Merced since 2016,” said Tom Bustos. “We feel really blessed.”

The monthly activity provides all of the good things a car show can create and it helps community organizations along the way. The July event raises money for the Carlos Viera Foundation Race for Autism with a raffle for fireworks.

Other groups that benefit from the showcase of vintage cars include Cub Scout Pack 96 when the annual Pinewood Derby is staged on site alongside the automobile displays.

“That event includes a scavenger hunt where participants find cars with particular histories,” Tom said.

Tom and Emily Bustos along with their classic automobiles: a Maserati Granturismo and a Porsche 911. Photo: Steve Newvine

There are a lot of classic car enthusiasts in the Central Valley of California.

This monthly event provides the family friendly venue where everyone is welcome and any car can be displayed.

The Bustos get into the act with their two cars. One drives a Maserati and the other drives a Porsche. The other added bonus of Cars and Coffee Merced is the creation of new memories connecting people to a special set of wheels in their lives.

One car enthusiast shared a story about selling a classic car at a reduced price to a terminally ill friend so that the friend could enjoy it in what would be his final days.

Others can recall a specific type of car that was exactly like the car a close relative had back decades ago.

Still others just get a kick out of seeing all the cars.

A classic Chevy Corvette brightens the scenery at Cars and Coffee Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

Cars and Coffee Merced is held every first Saturday morning from March through October in the north parking area at Merced Mall.

There is no entry fee for cars and no admission charge to the public. A raffle helps generate enough money to provide some light snacks, pay for the event insurance, and purchase additional prizes.

The purpose is quite simple according to Tom: “The goal is just to bring motor enthusiasts of all kinds together.”

That goal is reached every month during car show season. Memories continue to be made month after month, wheel after wheel.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His books California Back Roads and Can-Do Californians are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at Lulu.com. Both are also on sale right now at the Merced Courthouse Museum gift shop.

Steve will be the guest speaker at the Merced Senior Center morning meeting on May 12.

For more information, call the Center at (209) 385-8803 or email at [tommysoto31@gmail.com][0]

[0]: mailto:tommysoto31@gmail.com

Back in the Buckaroo Saddle Again-

Classic Country Group Reunites After COVID-forced Break

The Buckaroos then with Buck Owens, and now. Photo Buck Owens Private Foundation

Over fifty years ago, Fresno musician Jim Shaw wanted to record his country band Nashville West in a new studio owned by the legendary Buck Owens in Bakersfield.

Little did he know he would meet Buck and be asked to record with him that very day. “Buck was recording and needed a piano player".

He was told there was a piano player in the building: "me.” While Owens did not know Jim, he came out of the studio to meet him and asked whether Jim could play in the session.

That session worked out, and would soon be followed by a few more before Buck asked Jim if he’d like to join the group. “By June of 1970, I was hired as a member of the Buckaroos.”

The Buckaroos with Dean Martin in a photograph from the 1970s. Buck Owens and the Buckaroos appeared on a number of TV variety shows in the seventies including the Ed Sullivan Show, and the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. Photo: Buck Owens Private Foundation

Jim has been part of the Buckaroos ever since. He played in the band during the Hee Haw TV show that Buck co-hosted with Roy Clark.

Jim was there for the road appearances, network variety shows, and in the recording studio.

He never left the group. Band members moved on over the years and were replaced by other musicians.

Jim along with Doyle Curtsinger, who joined shortly before Jim, have both remained with the band for over fifty years.

Jim Shaw in the foreground with two other members of the Buckaroos at the band’s reunion concert in March 2023. Photo: Steve Daniels.

The Central Valley’s country music heritage was on full display on the stage of the Buck Owens Crystal Palace in Bakersfield in late March.

The Buckaroos performed for the first time since COVID restrictions closed the place back in 2020.

While the Palace would reopen once restrictions were lifted, the band went into a sort of holding pattern.

Jim Shaw on the keyboards at the Buckaroos reunion shows at the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield. Photo: Steve Daniels

Buck Owens died in 2005, but the band continued performing at the Crystal Palace.

Jim has played with the Buckaroos along with serving as the managing director for the Buck Owens Private Foundation.

The Foundation runs the entertainment, publishing, and recording arms of the singer’s estate. When he signed on, he joined legendary guitarist Don Rich and bass player Doyle Holly who were stalwarts of the band. Holly left a year later to forge a solo career.

Rich died in a motorcycle accident in 1974.

Others became Buckaroos over the past five decades. So the reunion shows took on a special significance.

Vocalist and Buckaroo Kim McAbee was part of the reunion shows the band did in late March of 2023. Photo: Steve Daniels

Also on stage for the reunion was lead singer Buckaroo Kim McAbee.

On her Facebook page, she said of the reunion, “So much fun with the Buckaroos together again after three years.” Jim Shaw echoed the sentiments of Kim and others by saying the two shows at the Crystal Palace went very well. “Friday night was totally sold out and we had an enthusiastic crowd and a train-wreck-free performance.”

When he met Buck more than five decades ago Jim had no idea how his life would change.

“I moved into running Buck’s recording studio and took on other duties over the years. I’ve been a managing director of the Buck Owens Private Foundation for the past seventeen years.”

Buck Owens would perform at his Crystal Palace right up until his passing in 2005. Photo: Buck Owens Private Foundation

Jim describes recording for Buck as an experience that was at times challenging but also inspiring. “It was interesting,” he says of those years. “Buck was hard driving, a perfectionist. On the other hand, he brought out the best of us.”

The Buckaroos band was considered one of the best instrumental groups in country music. That’s due in part to that hard-driving leadership from Buck Owens and in part to the musical magic that can happen many times within a small band. Each member brings in something unique, and when the conditions are right, the results are almost magical.

The Buckaroos were co-founders of the so-called Bakersfield Sound, a distinctive style of country music that focused on a smaller number of musicians and the liberal use of electric guitars.

Buck Owens and Merle Haggard were the best-known country artists who delivered the Bakersfield Sound.

Behind those two country icons were the backup bands. Haggard had the Strangers. Owens had the Buckaroos.

“Back in our heyday, every major country artist had their own band,” Jim said. “Loretta Lynn had the Coal Miners, and Johnny Cash originally had the Tennessee Two. Now, an artist may have a band, but often the faces change, and rarely are they even named.”

It is different for the Buckaroos. They keep the flame burning. Thanks to reunion shows like the two performed in late March in Bakersfield, the Buckaroos continue to keep the Bakersfield Sound alive.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He has written several Our Community Story columns on the Bakersfield Sound and has featured Bakersfield in two of his books: Can Do Californians and California Back Roads.

Both books are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Lulu.com as well as at the Merced County Courthouse Museum Gift Shop.