Efforts afoot to honor late filmmaker Nate Berg with a star on Fox Walk of Fame; tribute set for Sunday
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – In his short 52 years, Nathaniel “Nate” Berg made quite an impression — not just on the Bakersfield country music scene, but, long before, in the punk rock domain. Now, he’s being remembered for it.
Berg made a name for himself first as a musician, then as a concert promoter, most memorably at Jerry’s Pizza on Chester Avenue, a dungeon of a venue that featured a host of pre-fame punk rock acts, from Weezer to Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins.
Brian Boozer of Aum Studio, a drummer whose bands played often at Jerry’s, came to know Berg well.
“Nate was always super-cool to bring us on the shows for some of the bigger touring headlining acts that were coming through town,” Boozer said. “It was a really neat way for us to meet some of our heroes.”
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Berg reinvented himself years later as a filmmaker, and music was again an important theme. Not punk rock, but traditional country; his two installments of “Highway 58” were to be part of a series of perhaps a dozen music documentaries, now unlikely to come to fruition.
“He wasn’t just trying to do films for fun or like a side hobby,” Boozer said. “He was really passionate about wanting to spotlight the music that has happened in Bakersfield, both past and present.”
Di Sharman of Citizens Preserving History came to know Berg much later.
“Just recently, Citizens Preserving History and all the country music people met Nate,” she said. “He came in like a tornado, saying, ‘I want to celebrate country music here in Bakersfield.’”
And that’s what he was in the process of doing right up until the premature end.
Berg died the night of Jan. 18 going into the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 19. He’d been feeling ill – bronchitis or possibly undiagnosed COVID. He went around the corner from Skylight Guitars, where he’d been staying, to Downtown Market at M and 19th — a corner some regard as the heart of the tenderloin — to buy some orange juice. He never made it back.
Berg was discovered down on the sidewalk at around 2 a.m. – six hours after the market had closed for the night. How could that have happened? Well, people sprawled on the sidewalk near that street corner are not uncommon sights.
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Berg was 52. The coroner’s office has yet to reveal a cause of death.
Friends and fans will host a celebration of life for Berg at the Fox Theater Sunday at 3:30 p.m. with a number of well-known local acts performing. The show is free, but the hosts are encouraging donations for a star on the Fox Theater Walk of Fame honoring Berg. Citizens Preserving History needs to raise $5,000.
Skylight Guitars is donating a guitar that show organizers will raffle for the cause.
Boozer, for one, thinks Berg is deserving of a spot on the sidewalk near Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and other contributors to the arts and the community in general.
“I think what sets him off is the work he was doing as a filmmaker,” Boozer said. “I’d say he is definitely worthy to have his name outside of the Fox. Absolutely.”
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