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The Soda Crackers: Bakersfield's Premier Country & Western Band · San Joaquin Sound

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You're listening to the San Joaquin Sound. the
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podcast about music in Bakersfield and the surrounding
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San Joaquin Valley. I'm your host, AJ Rodriguez.
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Today I traveled to the Fairfax Grange to interview
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Zane Adamo, singer and fiddle player for the
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Soda Crackers. Can you tell me a little bit about
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your band? The Soda Crackers started in October
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of 2021. It started off as like a jam session
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on Wednesday nights. From there, we booked our
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first show in Tehachapi, California. And then
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we played our first official show as the Soda
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Crackers from that jam session in Taft later
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that year, October 2021. And then here we are
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today. We're a five -piece, sometimes six -piece
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band with my little brothers in town. I always
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tell people we're a Bakersfield sound band. We
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play Western swing music. What are all the members
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of the Soda Crackers? So we have six members
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of the Soda Crackers. So the Soda Cracker that's
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been there the longest since day one is our bass
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player, Chewy Holguin. He plays stand -up bass,
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and he's from Santa Ana, California. And then
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our drummer, Jeff Giroux, is from Bakersfield,
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but he lives down in San Dimas. But he's from
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Bakersfield, Jeff Giroux. He's on drums. And
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then we've got my little brother, Cooper, Cooper
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Adamo. He lives out in Oklahoma City. Born and
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raised here, went to BHS. He plays fiddle. He's
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our lead fiddle player. And then we have a steel
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guitar player out of Camarillo, California. His
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name is Ben Matthews. And then our newest soda
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cracker is Ben McCarthy, and he's on lead guitar
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from Ramona, California. And then myself, lead
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singer, fiddle player, and I play rhythm guitar.
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And I'm born and raised here in Bakersfield as
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well. You're inspired by a lot of country musicians
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from the past, right? Yeah, absolutely. There's
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a lot of people in the past and a lot of songs
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and artists that we play and cover that I don't
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think get their fair share of the credit. And
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so we try to play their music and remind people
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of people like Gene Shepard, Winn Stewart, Tommy
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Collins, all those greats. I think we should
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talk a little bit about what Bakersfield was
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like in the past. I read the book. The Bakersfield
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Sound, How a Generation of Displaced Okies Revolutionized
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American Music. And that book was written by
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Robert Price. A lot of my understanding of what
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Bakersfield was like back then comes from that
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book. Bakersfield was sometimes referred to as
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Nashville West. It was just so important to country
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music. It had a massive impact and changed what
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a lot of other artists were doing at the time.
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Buck Owens alone had 21 No. 1 Billboard country
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hits. Two were even side A and side B of the
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same single. Merle Haggard had 38 No. 1s. In
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1965, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens,
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and Kay Adams swept the first Academy of Music
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Country Awards in LA. So Bakersfield was really
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at a peak at this point, right, in the 60s? Yeah.
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And it's important to also note that Billy Mize
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was instrumental in that, is it ACMAs? Yeah.
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Yeah, that award show, Billy Mize was part of
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the people who put that together. So he was another
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Bakersfield Sound artist. I don't think a lot
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of people know who Billy Mize is, but he played
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a huge role in the country music that came out
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of Bakersfield. And was he one of the people
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that was telling people to come to Bakersfield
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to get country musicians to Bakersfield? I'm
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sure he was. He was around, again, you know,
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a lot of these stories I've heard from... people
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who might not be with us anymore or people who
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lived in those, you know, those decades of country
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music. Sure. But Billy Mize was around in the
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early days and he was a band leader. He played
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steel guitar. He was an amazing singer and he
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wrote songs, beautiful songs. But the person
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that I've always been told who was kind of the
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glue and bringing people in and putting people
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together up on stage was Bill Woods. A lot of
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people consider Bill Woods the father of the
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Bakersfield Sound. That's awesome. Yeah. So in
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the early 1950s, a lot of artists that... people
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might have heard of were playing at different
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honky -tonks and dance halls here in Bakersfield.
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Roy Nichols was playing at the Pumpkin Center
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Bar Dance. Buck Owens was playing with Bill...
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Woods at the Blackboard. That was located at
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3801 Chester. We had Billy Mize, who we talked
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about earlier, who was playing at the Lucky Spot,
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located at 2303 Edison Highway. Louis Talley
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and Fuzzy Owen were playing at the Clover Club,
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also on Edison Highway. You had the Tex Barrel
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House on Golden State Highway. The Rainbow Gardens
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was a dance hall. Honky Tonks were more for adults
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and there were all ages dance halls where anyone
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could go dancing, right? Yeah, I think the Honky
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Tonk and dance hall kind of paradigm is very
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interesting because the Honky Tonks are what
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a lot of people think of country music is today.
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You know, traditional country music, Honky Tonk,
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like old dimly lit bar room, smoke, lots of beer,
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lots of drinking, you know, 21 and up, bar fights,
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that kind of stuff. But dance halls were something
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that a lot of the Okies and a lot of the Texans,
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a lot of the people from Arkansas, Missouri,
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they brought that kind of way of life out here
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too. Because there's a lot of dance halls out
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in like hill country in Texas and Oklahoma that
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look just like Rainbow Gardens or even the Fairfax
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Grange where we're at today. Yeah, I read that
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there were a lot of work camps even for the displaced
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people that came to work here from Oklahoma and
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from Texas and Arkansas and other places. At
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night, they would have dances there in those
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camps. I think it's the Sunset Labor Camp right
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here just by Lamont. Oh, yeah? I can't remember
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if it's like Sunset or Sunrise, something like
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that, but I think it might be Sunset Labor Camp,
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and there's a dance hall that's still there.
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It's like a museum dedicated to, they call them,
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I think they call them Hoovervilles. That's cool.
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So the Rainbow Gardens was another dance hall,
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and that was located at 2301 South Union, and
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that's where Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. first
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saw Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell play? So the
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Rainbow Gardens is now the Basque Hall off of
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South Union. So it's still standing. And it's
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the last one of like the dance halls, the classic
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old school dance halls that's still around. I
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heard that Merle Haggard saw Bob Wills for the
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first time at the Beardsley Ballroom in Oildale
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off of Beardsley. And then he got to go up and
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play with Lefty. He opened for Lefty Frizzell
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at the Rainbow Gardens. I guess, I think the
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story goes. And Merle's friend, who he was there
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with, told Lefty that he could sing just like
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him. And so Lefty gave him his guitar, gave Merle
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his guitar, and told him, like, well, let's hear
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what you got. And he started singing, and then
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Lefty told his manager, he's like, you better
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let that kid go up there and sing before I do
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or I'm not playing. Wow. And then later on, Merle
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Haggard bought Lefty Frizzell's guitar, his,
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like, classic guitarist, his Lefty on the pickguard.
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So very full circle moment. Back then, there
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was also the Fairfax Grange, which we're sitting
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in today, which was more of the dance hall type,
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right? Yeah, the Grange Halls are more of like
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a community space, but they built them for families
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to have dances, for concerts, for anything they
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need them to be. And we used to have nine here
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in the Kern County area, and the Fairfax Grange
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is the last one standing. So it opened in 1940
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and it's still here. Another thing in Bakersfield
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at the time, in the late 50s and early 60s, there
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was only three TV stations. There was KERO Channel
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10, and they had Cousin Herb's trading post every
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night before the news. And KAFY Channel 17 had
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Jimmy Thomason's show. I think KBAK 29 had its
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own show as well. Yeah, Cousin Herb and then
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Jimmy Thomason. Jimmy Thomason had... the iconic
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blue electric fiddle. And he was like a band
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leader. My dad talks about watching the Jimmy
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Thomason show as a young kid out here in Bakersfield
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and also the Cousin Herb show too. Wow. Yeah.
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A blue fiddle. I mean, you see a lot of different
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color fiddles now, but back then I would think
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that might be one of the few. Yeah, I mean, when
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you're a showman, when you're a frontman, you
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got to, you know, you got to get up on stage
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and you got to give people a show. So having
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a blue fiddle is something people would pay a
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ticket to come see. And that blue fiddle is at
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the Kern County Museum. It's in the Bakersfield
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Sound Exhibit. Oh, wow. That's awesome. Yeah,
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back then, if you've never seen what country
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musicians look like from classic Bakersfield
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sound, it was very more dressed up. A lot of
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rhinestones and really colorful suits. The Maddox
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and Rose had amazing costumes. And Buck Owens
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himself, you know, he had a multicolored American
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flag colored guitar and a bunch of different
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color suits that he wore with rhinestones. Maddox
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Brothers and Rose, I think they're like... slogan
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was the world's most colorful hillbilly band
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or america's most colorful hillbilly band and
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then buck owens you know he just turned it to
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11 like everything was sparkle everything was
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sequenced everything was embroidered and he kind
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of had that And a lot of people say it looks
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like kind of like a like a charo suit, kind of
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like a like a like a mariachi suit. And so you
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get these like short jackets that were, you know,
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hemmed at the waist. And but he had all these
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embroiderments and rhinestones and they just
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like looked like a million bucks. And they knew
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that they had to put on a show from start to
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finish. And so with the soda crackers, we always
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make sure we dress the part and give people that
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kind of experience you would have had in the
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40s, 50s or 60s. Also, back in this time, the
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99 wasn't where it is now. It was Union Avenue.
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Yeah, it was 99. And if you've ever seen the
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Bakersfield sign that's outside the Crystal Palace,
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which does have in it a bunch of these outfits
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and costumes almost of this time, but outside
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there's the iconic Bakersfield sign. You've probably
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driven under it or seen pictures of it. Well,
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that sign. The only thing that existed are the
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letters, and those letters are from a bridge
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that went over Union Avenue back then. It went
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to the Bakersfield Inn, and it was just south
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of California in Union. And my dad has photos
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of them taking down that bridge and preserving
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the letters, yeah. Oh, that's awesome. People
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define the Bakersfield sound in a lot of different
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ways. How do you define it? I feel like I ask
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myself this question a lot, and I keep... you
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know, adding to my answer or taking things away
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from it. But for me, there's only really one
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era of the Bakersfield Sound. There was never
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a second, you know, generation or third generation
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of the Bakersfield Sound. There's one generation
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that really kind of built this sound, this identity.
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And for me, it comes from the people that came
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from the Dust Bowl, the migrant families that
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came from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas,
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all these plain states and western states where
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these people lost everything and they moved out
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to the west coast. out here and didn't have much
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better of a life and through that struggle you
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had artists you know create amazing music and
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create amazing songs and the Bakersfield sound
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to me started in the late 40s and it had its
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heyday in the 60s and kind of died off in the
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mid 70s more or less it's that kind of right
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on the edge country music sound where like rockabilly
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and country music there's that gray area where
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you don't really know what you're listening to
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but you kind of like it and it's all about getting
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people up and dancing have a good time That's
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what the Bakersfield sound is to me. Yeah. For
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me, the Bakersfield sound also exists as almost
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a protest to what was going on in Nashville.
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Yeah. It's a stark contrast. What's interesting
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is that in Nashville around this time, there
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was a lot of production. There was a lot of background
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singers, string sections. They were going for
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almost an elegant sound. Yeah. And you have...
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buck owens and other people in the bakersfield
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sound making something that's like a lot more
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raw the production is more raw it feels almost
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live yeah another reason that could be because
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in nashville they all use the same band and just
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rotated out the singers yeah but here A lot of
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times they would record it at the Capitol building
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right in L .A., but they were allowed to bring
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their band. So Buck Owens had his buckaroos to
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record. Merle Haggard took his strangers to record.
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And so there's some authenticity to having your
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own band that you play with on the road and at
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these honky tonks and dance halls around there
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to be actually recording it with them. And you
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can just hear it. That is true. I think in many
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ways, if you want to get into the business side
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of things, if you want to go all the way back.
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So for me, the foundation of the Bakersfield
12:58
Sound really started with Western Swing and Bob
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Wills and his Texas Playboys. Because Bob Wills
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and his Texas Playboys proved to everybody that
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you didn't need Nashville. You didn't need to
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record at RCA in Nashville. You didn't need to
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record out in New York. You could be your own
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massive success out in Texas and Oklahoma. And
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the heydays of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
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was the 30s, 40s, and early 50s. He started tailing
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off his career. But that's right around the time
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where Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Billy Mize,
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Red Simpson, all those guys were young men. And
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then the women of the Basial Sound, too. Young
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women were all listening to Bob Wills and being
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like, well, he's not out in Nashville. He doesn't
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need Nashville. Why should we need him? There's
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like sometimes almost a punk attitude to it.
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Oh, 100%. Yeah. It's very anti -establishment.
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Very like, no, like we're going to do it our
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way. And then you guys are going to like it.
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And they did. Yeah. Out here, you know, Capitol
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still had their sessions musicians. Like Buck
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Owens was a sessions guitar player before he
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was his own star. Glenn Campbell was a sessions
13:59
musician. before he became his own star. James
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Burton, Ricky Nelson's guitar player, played
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on a lot of early Merle Haggard. And Wynn Stewart,
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Tommy Collins, they all had bands, but sometimes
14:11
they would have musicians from Capitol Records.
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But I think... If you want to really get down
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to the nitty gritty details, and I think you
14:18
could relate to this. Out here on the West Coast,
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we're almost all descendants of people that just
14:24
thought there's got to be something better. You
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know, I'm not going to stay in nothing against
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Ohio or Kansas. Like, no, I'm going to keep going
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West. It's got to get better. I'm going to California.
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That's where you can make it out there. And you
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still see people try to make their dreams happen
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out in here in California. And I think that's
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where some of that attitude of the Bakersfield
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Sound comes from. So when we talk about Bakersfield
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sound, another thing that comes to mind is the
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Fender Telecaster electric guitar. How does that
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factor in to the sound? Man. Well, you know,
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Fender came from Orange County, started in Fullerton.
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I actually, we play the Soda Crackers. We play
15:00
a place, Caddy Corner, to where Fender got started.
15:03
Oh, wow. It was, I think, a radio repair shop.
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That's how he got his business started and started
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building amplifiers. And everybody loved his
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amplifiers. He's like, oh, shoot, I'm going to
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make guitars now. Before the Telecaster, everybody
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was playing these big arch top hollow body semi.
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um acoustics or semi -acoustic electric guitars
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like gibson's gretches and they sounded great
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in them but they weren't as powerful as like
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a solid body guitar with these pickups and um
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you know You would need to crank your guitars,
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you know, your Gibsons and your Epliphones up
15:39
quite a bit just to cut through these crowds
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of hundreds of people at these dance halls. And
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when you had a Telecaster, you could just crank
15:45
it up and just be one guitar player and just
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pierce right through everything. And in many
15:49
ways, the guitar players from the Basial Sound
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era really catapulted. the brand that is fender
15:55
into you know the giant company that it is now
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today like don rich and roy nichols some of the
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best guitar players in the world um and especially
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in country music play telecasters yeah and to
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add to that about being able to crank the telecaster
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really loud it was really loud at the honky tonks
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right they were cranking it i heard someone talk
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about how it was the loudest they've ever heard
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yeah they would just be in this small these small
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honky tonks with all the amps cranked up a lot
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of those semi -acoustic guitars if you crank
16:26
them too much on the amp and also on the guitar
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you get a lot of natural feedback and so if a
16:30
solid body there is no chance for feedback because
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there is no like chamber for that to happen and
16:36
so you could just 10 and 10 and just yeah absolutely
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yeah so we talked about we mentioned We mentioned
16:43
Western swing. Yeah. We talked a little bit about
16:46
swing in our jazz episode that talked about Mary
16:49
Osborne. How does Western swing connect to jazz
16:52
at all? You know, it's the improvisation of the
16:56
musicians like on the spot. That's where a lot
16:59
of Western swing borrows from jazz and Western
17:02
swing borrows a lot from. the blues from the
17:05
black community borrows a lot from the czech
17:08
and german pokas from europe and you find out
17:11
in texas borrows a lot from everything and it
17:13
kind of just mashes it all together and it becomes
17:15
western swing and so it has that big band feel
17:17
but it's got people playing these polka beats
17:20
these two -step songs these waltzes they're pretty
17:23
much being jazz musicians just playing on the
17:25
spot playing and reacting to musicians around
17:28
them yeah I also read that some people like Willie
17:32
Cantu had a jazz background. Yeah. Different
17:35
musicians. I've met Willie. He's still around.
17:39
He's in good health and he lives out in the Nashville
17:43
area. And he always wanted to be a jazz musician.
17:46
But when I was talking to Willie out in Tennessee,
17:49
he told me that, so I think it was Don and Doyle,
17:53
Don Rich and Doyle Hawley. I went to go see him
17:57
playing with the band that he had played in in
17:59
Texas. I think he's from like the South Texas
18:01
area. Oh, yeah. And he got the job as the buckaroo
18:05
drummer because he could play super fast. He
18:07
was very good technically as a drummer. And so
18:09
jazz drummers obviously have to be technically
18:12
masters, you know, and be able to play as fast
18:16
or as slow as they need to or as complex as they
18:18
need to. And so he got the job for being, you
18:20
know, the drummer that he wanted to be. I heard
18:24
that some of the parts that he made, he was just
18:26
making up on the day of them recording. Heard
18:29
it, and he's like, okay, I got something for
18:30
that. He said something. He's also, Willie is
18:34
such, he's the nicest guy. You would think that,
18:36
you know, I was afraid to talk to him because
18:38
he's the original, in my opinion, he's like the
18:42
Buck Owens drummer. Even though he wasn't there
18:44
for very long, he was there, I want to say like
18:47
64 to 67, something like that. And arguably that
18:51
was. buck's golden years you know of his career
18:54
and um buck owens told him like i think he told
18:58
uh willie he's like i'll always tell you when
19:01
you're doing something i don't like and we always
19:03
play on top of the beat and then willie said
19:05
okay sounds good and then willie told me he's
19:08
like i had no idea what buck meant by playing
19:10
on top of the beat and so he just did what he
19:12
thought he could do and the rest is history what
19:15
about your cousin ronnie sessions yeah He was
19:18
part of the Bakersfield Sound, right? Yeah, Ronnie
19:20
Sessions, little Ronnie Sessions. He was a little
19:22
bit more on the younger side. Buck was established,
19:25
Merle was established. He's a couple years older
19:28
than my dad, so he was born, I think, in the
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early 50s, maybe late 40s. I don't know how old
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he was. He just recently passed a couple months
19:35
ago. Oh, my condolences. Thank you. But he was
19:39
around and played and recorded for Moserite Records
19:41
here in town. He was, I think... He was managed
19:44
by Simi Mosley. And then his biggest song, Wiggle
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Wiggle, I think went number 16 on the country
19:50
music charts. And he was signed to MGM and RCA
19:54
Records. And he had a modest career out in Nashville.
19:58
And he lived out there. And yeah, he recently
20:00
passed a couple months ago. Never got to meet
20:03
him, though. Oh, man. My little brother got to
20:04
meet him, though. So he moved out to Nashville,
20:06
I think, when he was a young man. And so he lived
20:08
most of his life out on the East Coast. But my
20:11
little brother, Cooper, got to meet him right
20:12
before he passed. I think maybe about six or
20:14
seven months before he passed. Wow. Yeah. Well,
20:17
it's amazing that he did country music and you
20:20
are, too. Yeah. Yeah. He's my cousin once removed.
20:22
So he's my dad's first cousin. So my first cousin
20:25
once removed. Yeah. Yeah. Ronnie Sessions. was
20:29
signed to Moserite Records, and that was owned
20:32
by the same company as Moserite Guitars, right?
20:35
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a lot of the people from
20:38
this era were playing Moserite Guitars, right?
20:41
We talked about Moserite Guitars in the Mary
20:43
Osborne episode because her husband, Ralph Scafidi,
20:46
worked there. How important were Moserite Guitars
20:48
to the Bakersfield Sound? When you play a Moserite,
20:51
you know exactly what you're playing. You can
20:53
close your eyes and they give you a Moserite,
20:54
and then just the feel of Moserites too as well.
20:57
I think the first ever Buck Owens acoustic guitar
21:00
with the red, white, and blue, that's a Moserite
21:03
guitar. Wow. And so the first ever like red,
21:06
white, and blue. acoustic guitar that Buck Owens
21:08
plays was a Moserite. I'm not an expert at Moserites,
21:11
and I don't know the history as well as I should.
21:13
People who played Moserites, so my cousin Ronnie
21:16
Sessions played Moserites. Gene Moles was a legendary
21:19
guitar player here in the Bakersfield Sound area
21:22
and the Bakersfield area in general. He played
21:24
on a lot of Red Simpsons songs. He played on
21:26
a ton of people's records, and he developed the
21:29
iconic Ventures model Moserite guitar. So he
21:33
did a lot of R &D and testing. with Simi Mosley
21:37
on that guitar model, the Ventures model. And
21:42
then people like Joe Maphis played the double
21:45
neck Moserite guitars. Larry Collins played a
21:47
double neck guitar made by Moserite. And it all
21:50
happened here in Bakersfield. And it's funny
21:52
because there's obviously that strong connection
21:55
with Moserite and the Bakersfield Sound. But
21:57
one of the most iconic surf bands in the world,
22:00
the Ventures, played Moserite guitars. Yep. There's
22:04
a huge list of people that played Moserite guitars.
22:06
The Moserite guitar transcends Bakersfield Sound.
22:11
It's like its foundation is in the Bakersfield
22:13
Sound, but it was used and played by so many
22:16
people. I think Kurt Cobain played a Moserite.
22:19
Yeah, he did. too, as well. There's a lot of
22:21
people, like I said, I'm not an expert at Moserite,
22:24
but our pal Deke Dickerson, who recorded our
22:27
album down in Northridge, he's coming out with
22:29
the definitive Moserite book in a couple years.
22:33
He's still doing research and taking pictures
22:36
of every Moserite that's ever been built, but
22:38
I'm really excited to learn about Moserites once
22:41
he comes out with that book. Are there any unsung
22:44
heroes of the Bakersfield sound era that you'd
22:47
like people to know about? I think everybody
22:49
should know about Winn Stewart and Tommy Collins,
22:53
for sure. Especially Winn Stewart. I think if
22:57
you like Buck Owens, if you close your eyes and
23:01
think of a Buck Owens song, Winn Stewart was
23:05
sounding like that and performing songs, and
23:09
his band was sounding just like Buck Owens did
23:12
15 years before Buck was doing it. And he really
23:15
laid that foundation for like, when you think
23:17
of Buck Owens, twang and those songs and the
23:19
songwriting, all that kind of stuff, when Stuart
23:22
and his steel guitar player, Ralph Mooney, who's
23:24
another steel guitar legend. And then Tommy Collins
23:27
too, out of Oklahoma city was another really
23:30
big influence on Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.
23:33
And I think those two people, those two gentlemen
23:35
don't get the credit that they deserve. I could
23:38
go on and on. Like Red Simpson, I feel like.
23:41
doesn't get a lot of credit, and he deserves
23:43
a lot of credit, because he wrote amazing, beautiful
23:45
songs. Bonnie Owens was an amazing, gifted songwriter
23:49
and singer. Gene Shepard, Ferlin Husky, I'm trying
23:53
to think of any more. There's so many of them.
23:55
It's hard to kind of pin down, but you know,
23:57
I will say my personal favorite is Buck Owens.
24:00
I just love mid -60s Buck. That's my favorite
24:03
era of country music, and he was like the man.
24:05
No one could touch him in the mid -60s. Just
24:10
his band, his style, his songwriting, everything.
24:13
Just 100%. He was huge outside of country music.
24:18
People like the Beatles are covering his songs.
24:21
He had an instrumental go number one. Who has
24:24
a song that doesn't have words, beat, all the
24:28
other songs? That's wild. I don't think there
24:32
will never be another instrumental number one
24:35
hit. Unless, I could be wrong, but... I don't
24:38
see it happening, and Buck did it. And he was
24:42
also an unbelievable businessman. He created
24:45
an empire while he was around. He created that
24:48
iconic red, white, and blue guitar. He didn't
24:50
create it, but he branded himself with that guitar.
24:54
He had his own super successful TV show, Hee
24:59
Haw, in the 70s and 80s. And then he also had
25:01
the Buck Owens Ranch show that he recorded before
25:04
Hee Haw. two or three successful radio stations
25:09
out here on the west coast that are still around
25:11
today yeah and then he has the crystal palace
25:13
too but in terms of like overall musician i think
25:17
merle haggard's the best there ever was he wrote
25:19
the most amazing songs he had the looks he had
25:22
the voice and then he was an amazing amazing
25:25
uh musician too and i don't think anybody comes
25:29
close to the songs that he wrote like the Mama's
25:32
Hungry Eyes, Silver Wings, Today I Started Loving
25:35
You Again, Swinging Doors, These are all just
25:38
absolute staples in country music nowadays. And
25:41
everybody owes so much to Merle Haggard. And
25:44
he had such a prolific career. And it really
25:46
depends on which day you ask me. I think it's
25:48
either Buck or Merle is my favorite. But today
25:51
it's Buck. Yeah, there's definitely a reason
25:53
why people think of them when they think of Bakersfield.
25:55
It's like Pepsi Coke, you know. I think it just
25:57
depends on who you are. Yeah. So the massive
26:01
legacy of the Bakersfield Sound era has really
26:06
inspired you to make your own music, right? How
26:09
did you get started playing music? I started
26:12
playing fiddle when I was six years old. My mom
26:15
and dad just absolutely loved country music,
26:18
loved western swing. They were dancing country
26:20
out here way before I was around. I just want
26:23
a big thank you to mom and dad for instilling
26:26
country music love in me from day one. They're
26:30
the real heroes. They wanted me to like be a
26:34
fiddle player. They like, when we have our son,
26:37
we're going to get him lessons when he was six
26:39
years old. So I was actually taught classical
26:40
violin and my dad taught me fiddle music growing
26:43
up. And then I've just always learned country
26:45
music by ear. So I've never like read sheet music
26:49
for country music. I played in symphonies and
26:51
orchestras in high school. I played country music.
26:54
at senior centers all throughout town and growing
26:57
up. And when I was in high school and junior
27:00
college, I played in orchestras and symphonies
27:02
too as well, but never was a part of a band,
27:05
never a part of a country band, just played fiddle
27:07
with some people at senior centers, never part
27:10
of a band. And then went to college, never really
27:13
found anybody that really liked the country music
27:15
I did. The closest thing I found was somebody
27:18
who wanted to be like a Johnny Cash tribute band.
27:21
I like Johnny Cash, but not enough to. Play him
27:24
for three hours in a row. I see, yeah. And then
27:27
I went down to LA and started meeting people
27:31
when I moved out to the east side of LA that
27:33
really liked the country music that I liked.
27:35
And they opened my eyes to a lot of like rockabilly
27:38
and country artists that I had never heard before.
27:40
And then we started the Soda Crackers and now
27:43
we're here. I've been playing guitar since I
27:46
was probably about 13. And then I play a little
27:48
mandolin too as well. But I didn't start singing
27:51
until I started the Soda Crackers. Our lead singer
27:55
of the Soda Crackers, the original lead singer,
27:58
he moved back home, and I was the only dude that
28:01
maybe sang one or two songs. I was like, well,
28:04
I've wanted to be a part of a country band for
28:06
so long, I guess I have to learn how to start
28:07
singing. So you stepped up to the plate for that?
28:09
There was a lot of rough shows and a lot of out
28:11
-of -tune notes and a lot of videos of me and
28:15
the band in the early days where I looked like
28:17
an idiot. Well, it's one way to learn. Just go
28:20
and do it. Yeah. And then we started, you know,
28:22
we wrote our first originals in January of 2024.
28:26
And we recorded here at the Fairfax Grange. So
28:29
we have Two Step Solution and Great Vine Rag.
28:31
They're out on Spotify and streaming and it's
28:33
available on Vinyl Record. And then we just finished
28:36
up recording our first ever full album last Sunday
28:40
too as well. Wow. And that will have five originals
28:43
on it. Five originals, five covers. That's cool.
28:45
I saw a picture of you on Instagram with a guitar
28:50
that you had when you were little, and it made
28:53
me think of my first guitar. I really wanted
28:56
to play electric guitar. Yeah. And I begged my
28:58
parents, please, please just buy me electric
29:01
guitar. I want to play guitar. My parents were
29:04
pretty strict and very religious, and they didn't
29:07
really want me to play an electric guitar. My
29:09
dad, he gave me $10 and he said, if you can turn
29:13
this into enough money to get an electric guitar,
29:16
then I'll drive you down to Guitar Center and
29:19
we'll get one. And he thought, well, that's going
29:21
to be it. He's going to spend it. But no, I went
29:25
and I bought candy and I sold candy at school
29:27
for months until I had enough money to go to
29:31
Guitar Center and I had like $400 in like dollar
29:34
bills. And I was like, dad, take me to Guitar
29:37
Center. I'm ready to buy the guitar. And we ordered
29:40
a Squier Stratocaster. Nice. I still have that
29:44
guitar. It's priceless. If I had to sell all
29:46
my guitars but one, I would keep that one. That's
29:49
a great story. And I wondered if you had a similar
29:52
story about yours. I kind of did. Yeah, so that
29:54
first electric guitar that I bought. I know I
29:57
probably, well, one, I bet my parents helped
29:59
me out a little bit, but most of the money that
30:01
I used to buy that guitar was my own money from
30:04
like chores or like helping the neighbor rake
30:07
leaves or something like that. You know, just
30:08
doing little kids stuff. It was a Fender Stratocaster.
30:12
It was black and it was made in Mexico. And I
30:14
was very proud that I got a Fender guitar. Nice.
30:17
And I ended up selling that guitar, that Stratocaster.
30:20
And, you know, part of me is like, maybe you
30:22
should have kept your first electric guitar.
30:23
But at the same time, I consider myself a fiddle
30:26
player first, and I think I always will be. And
30:28
so my fiddle I have right now is priceless. There's
30:32
no way I'm getting rid of that, even if a nicer,
30:35
newer, older, better -sounding fiddle came my
30:38
way. The fiddle I have right now is the one I'm
30:40
going to be playing forever. Nice. I noticed
30:44
you really strive to make authentic country music
30:46
with the Soda Crackers. So what... What is authentic
30:50
country music for you? I think, you know, what
30:53
makes it authentic and what we strive to do with
30:55
the Soda Crackers. So even before the Soda Crackers
30:58
were around, we were just like a jam session
31:00
with friends. People would buy beers and pizza.
31:02
We would play at our buddy Josh's house for four
31:04
hours and just have a good time. And we would
31:07
just play songs that we all love. And they were
31:09
all covers. The core of the Soda Crackers will
31:12
always be let's play the songs that we all love
31:14
the way that we hear them, you know, like on
31:17
the recording. So not like note for note recordings
31:19
because we still want, you know, to be artists
31:21
and musicians and play them a little bit the
31:23
way we see it. Yeah. But we're not going to put
31:26
our own spin on, you know, a classic Buck Owens
31:29
song. We're going to play it. the way that Buck
31:31
Owens would approve of. And we're going to play
31:34
it in our style still as the Soda Crackers, but
31:37
authentic to the recording that everybody knows.
31:40
That's awesome. Yeah. A lot of your music, maybe
31:43
all of it is meant for dancing, right? Yeah.
31:45
And you've played at dance halls and had to fill
31:48
a lot of time. Yeah. You know, the longest show
31:50
we've ever played is four hours. We have some
31:52
people. Yeah. We played four hour shows. Granted,
31:54
you take breaks, right? But still, most bands
31:57
don't do four hours. So if you think about it,
31:59
let's say it takes you comfortably two hours
32:02
to set up, right? quite a lot of time to set
32:04
up but you know you're not rushed at two hours
32:06
so there's six hours right there you have the
32:08
four hours of the show two hours set up and then
32:10
you have probably takes you another hour and
32:13
some change to to tear down put all your stuff
32:15
back in the truck so that's close to an eight
32:18
hour day and you're probably talking to people
32:20
for eight hours straight and um some of these
32:23
you know musicians even like the working musicians
32:25
that i've met since starting the soda crackers
32:28
like tommy hayes larry petrie sunny england they
32:31
talk about playing these places like the blackboard
32:34
or trouts or the lucky spot where there was no
32:36
such thing as ac people smoke inside and it was
32:40
loud in hell and it was like these guys were
32:42
playing four straight hours sometimes not taking
32:45
breaks in these places that had no ac a bunch
32:48
of cigarette smoke everywhere and then they all
32:51
had day jobs during the day and were raising
32:53
families and they did these shows like six, seven
32:56
nights a week out here in Bakersfield. You could
32:58
go to like seven, eight, nine different places
33:01
in Bakersfield any night of the week and there'd
33:02
be country music dancing. Yeah. It was unbelievable.
33:05
And so sometimes when I think, you know, oh,
33:07
we have a four -hour show in a nice AC room or
33:10
like outside on a patio, I think to myself like,
33:13
well, I don't have a family. I don't have a full
33:15
-time job like a firefighter or milkman and we're
33:19
taking breaks and no one's smoking cigarettes
33:20
in our face, you know, so it's not all bad. Yeah.
33:25
It's also a lot of fun too. It's fun playing
33:27
this music with your friends. So even though
33:28
four hours is a long time to play, you're still
33:32
having a great time. And then honestly, it's
33:34
harder to play a 45 -minute show than it is to
33:37
play a four -hour show because you really got
33:38
to make sure that 45 minutes really has an impact.
33:42
You can't warm up like you can in four hours.
33:45
You got to hit it right from the start and finish
33:48
strong. You mentioned Trouts. We didn't talk
33:51
about that, but that was another place. But don't
33:53
you have a guitar made out of the Trout sign?
33:56
Yeah. Well, not the Trout sign. So it was the
33:58
last of like the traditional honky tonks that
34:00
was left around. And I can't remember what year
34:02
it burned down and closed. It closed and then
34:05
it kind of sat for a little bit and then burned
34:07
down. But I remember I was in college. So this
34:10
must have been like maybe 2014, something like
34:14
that. So maybe, is that 11 years ago? Yeah, that's
34:18
11 years ago. 11 years ago, I had just turned
34:20
21, more or less. And, you know, if anybody's
34:24
from Bakersfield remembers Trouts on Northchester,
34:26
it had no windows. It was just like this door
34:29
into this place you couldn't see inside. You
34:31
know, I love Oildale, but it's kind of like a
34:33
little bit of a rougher part of town. And so
34:35
you're thinking to yourself, I'm like. there's
34:38
no way I have the confidence as like a 22 year
34:40
old guy to go in there by myself and see what's
34:43
in there. Oh, you mean after it was condemned
34:45
and stuff? No, not after it was still a honky
34:47
tonk. It was still going and stuff. And so I
34:49
was like, well, you know, I'm not the biggest
34:51
guy around. I can't, you know, I can't really
34:53
hold my own in case it wasn't worth the risk
34:56
for me. And so I asked my dad, I was like, Hey
34:58
dad. I've never been to a honky -tonk, and I
35:01
have this bad feeling that something's going
35:02
to happen to Trout sooner or later. Can you take
35:04
me to Trout's? And so one time when I came back
35:08
for the holidays, I asked my dad, can we go have
35:10
a beer at Trout's? And so he took me to Trout's.
35:12
So I went to Trout's once, and then, yeah, it
35:14
shut down, and then it was going to get turned
35:16
into offices, and then it burned down, and it
35:18
burned down right around my birthday. And so
35:21
I went to Trout's and found a piece of wood.
35:24
from the burn site because they still had like
35:26
just the debris that was there. Wow. And I got
35:28
that piece of wood and I had my friend Bob Thompson
35:31
down in Orange County make me a Telecaster with
35:35
the Trouts wood and I take it on the shows and
35:38
take it on the road and it's an amazing sounding
35:41
guitar. I love it. That's so cool. But I did
35:44
forget to mention that Trouts wasn't as scary
35:47
as I thought it was going to be because I was
35:49
like pretty terrified of Trouts. Not terrified,
35:51
maybe that's the wrong word, but... Definitely
35:54
like wasn't like looking to go in there at any
35:56
given time. So that's why I asked my dad to go
35:58
with me just in case. But when I got in there,
36:01
I was like, oh, this isn't that bad. It just
36:02
looks a little bad from the outside. Not that
36:05
it was bad to begin with, but Trout City wasn't
36:07
as scary, but I do miss it. I really wish we
36:09
had Trouts around. Yeah. So you've been going
36:11
on tour and on the road playing Bakersfield sound
36:14
music all over. How has that gone? It's been
36:17
going really well. I love the travel involved
36:19
and being a part of the band. Like there's days
36:21
where it's not as fun, right? Like when you're
36:23
sitting in traffic or you've got to drive down
36:25
to San Diego from Bakersfield. Like that's a
36:27
long day, but it's fun because people all up
36:32
and down the state love the music that came from
36:34
Bakersfield back in the Bakersfield Sound era.
36:37
And so when you're showing up to a show, you
36:40
have a steel guitar, you've got fiddle, you've
36:42
got a stand -up bass, you've got an electric
36:43
guitar, you've got drums, you've got the whole
36:45
package. Your band and yourself are dressed up
36:48
head to toe, and then you're playing the music.
36:50
These legends and these people recorded their
36:53
songs. You just transport them back to the music
36:57
that they heard their parents or grandparents
36:59
playing, and they just love it, and they have
37:01
a great time. We've played as far north as Sacramento.
37:04
We've played as far south as San Diego, and we
37:07
play often in the Orange County, L .A. area.
37:10
very often out on the Central Coast, and we play
37:12
in Kern County all the time. And then later this
37:14
year, we're going out to Oklahoma and Texas.
37:16
We're going on tour, first time for the band
37:19
to be out of the state of California. We're going
37:20
to be out there for nine days, and we're playing
37:23
eight shows. So we're going to let everybody
37:25
know out in Texas and Oklahoma that Bakersfield
37:28
Sound is still being played out in Bakersfield.
37:30
That's awesome. How do you like being able to
37:33
tell people you're from Bakersfield when you're
37:35
on the road, especially since that calls back
37:38
the type of music that you play? You know, I
37:40
was born and raised here. I went to Bakersfield
37:42
High School, went to BC for a couple years, and
37:45
I live here now. It's a point of pride for me,
37:48
and I also feel like I have a bit of a responsibility
37:50
as a Bakersfieldian to show people what the Bakersfield
37:54
sound is, and so I don't take that lightly. But
37:56
we also have a great time and have a fun time
37:58
too as well, and we still want to be authentic
38:00
to the music and us as artists too as well. But
38:04
people love it. So you said you just finished
38:06
recording your album earlier. How's that gone?
38:09
it's gone really well you know it's it's it's
38:11
taken a long time so we started the first uh
38:14
session was in december of 2024 and so it's been
38:18
about eight months seven or eight months since
38:20
we first started recording for our album and
38:23
then we looked a second day and finished up the
38:26
last bit of recording and now we're in the mixing
38:30
mastering process of the album and then i'm getting
38:33
the the cover design and the label design all
38:37
made. And we're going to come out with a 12 inch
38:39
vinyl record. Awesome. And I'm hoping that's,
38:42
that's going to happen by maybe late November,
38:44
early December. We'll have that all streaming
38:47
everywhere and vinyls ready to go. So that's
38:50
your first full length release. So it's gotta
38:52
be exciting. It is really exciting. I, it's all
38:55
like Bakersfield sound from start to finish the
38:57
way we recorded our originals, our new originals
38:59
that people haven't heard. Um, I think they like
39:01
when I've wrote the songs that I wrote, I think
39:04
to myself, could I see Buck Owens singing this
39:08
song? Could I see Wynn Stewart singing this song
39:10
in the 60s? And so when I kind of put myself
39:13
in that mindset, that's when I start writing
39:15
originals. And then we also did some covers,
39:17
too, of legendary songs and musicians that I
39:21
think we want on our album just to show people
39:23
where our influences come from since it's our
39:26
first debut album, LP. For the songwriting for
39:29
that album, who writes all the songs? Well, you
39:32
know, we kind of... We rehearse. We have scheduled
39:35
rehearsals. And then people who are ready to
39:37
pitch songs to the band, we'll get them ready
39:40
to go. They'll practice them. They'll write all
39:42
the songs down. And then we'll play them for
39:45
the band and see if we like it or if we can kind
39:47
of figure it out. If we don't, it's fine. If
39:50
we do, then we'll just kind of keep messing with
39:51
it. So for this album that we're coming out with
39:54
now, our lead guitar player wrote two songs.
39:58
He wrote an instrumental, and then he wrote a
40:01
song, a vocal song. And then I wrote two new
40:04
originals. And then I wrote a song, Two Step
40:06
Solution, that was on our debut single. We re
40:09
-recorded that for like an album version. And
40:11
then also we have a... A song that the guy who
40:15
essentially started the Soda Crackers, our buddy
40:18
Josh Storheim, he wrote a song called Texas Bell,
40:21
and we recorded that one. Essentially, if Josh's
40:24
house wasn't around, then the Soda Crackers would
40:25
never have been a thing. So that's how the Soda
40:28
Crackers started at Josh's house. So we have
40:29
Josh's song, we have two new originals from me,
40:32
and then we re -recorded Two Step Solution. And
40:35
then our guitar player, Ben McCarthy, wrote an
40:38
instrumental, and he wrote another song. So we
40:39
got six originals from the Soda Crackers, five
40:42
from current members of the band, and then we
40:44
have four covers. That's awesome. I'm looking
40:46
forward to hearing it. Yeah, thank you. We're
40:48
excited. It's been a long time coming, but we
40:52
didn't want to rush it, and we wanted to make
40:54
sure that when it was time, it felt right and
40:57
it feels right. So we're coming out with it.
40:59
That's good. When someone... listens to your
41:02
record, or they come to see you play live, what
41:06
do you want them to come away with? If someone
41:08
came to our show or if someone listened to our
41:11
record, I would hope that if they jumped in a
41:15
time machine and went back to the blackboard
41:17
in 1954 and went inside, they'd be like... that
41:23
looks just like and sounds just like the Soda
41:24
Crackers. I want people to think and feel like
41:27
they're going back in time when they see us and
41:30
see us play. And that's the experience I want
41:32
everybody to take away. You feel like you just
41:34
went into a time machine. And you're hearing
41:37
the songs the way you would have heard them at
41:39
the Blackboard. You would have seen the musicians
41:41
act and dress and sound the way that you would
41:44
have seen them back in the 50s, 60s, 40s, whatever.
41:48
era from like that classic era of Bakersfield
41:50
Sound. And then I hope everybody has a good time
41:53
and dance to this music that came from our hometown.
41:57
I noticed that you held a show called the Pioneers
42:01
of the Bakersfield Sound. Yeah. How did that
42:03
come about? So we did three Pioneers of the Bakersfield
42:05
Sound shows. The first one we did was at the
42:08
Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame off of Q Street
42:11
down there. And that was on July 30th. So it
42:14
just happened. The anniversary of it just happened
42:17
a couple of days ago. um in 2022 so three years
42:21
ago uh it kind of came about because i when we
42:25
started the soda crackers you know as just any
42:27
band does nobody knows who you are you know and
42:30
so you don't really have any fans you don't really
42:32
have anybody really knowing who you are to come
42:34
see you yeah but we've been playing traditional
42:37
country music we've been playing traditional
42:39
western swing we've been playing dancing country
42:42
music since day one and just so naturally we
42:45
just started meeting people who play this music
42:48
as well or grew up with it. And a lot of these
42:50
people from this golden era of the Bakersfield
42:53
sound from the 40s, 50s, and 60s, we started
42:56
meeting those people that grew up with this music
42:58
or when they were in their 20s, they were dancing
43:00
at the blackboard to these songs. And we met
43:04
Tommy Hayes, Sonny Anglin, and Larry Petrie actually
43:08
filled in for us on our first ever Bakersfield
43:10
show at Timbler Brewing back in 2021. The Pioneers
43:15
of the Bakersfield Sound Show was kind of this
43:16
idea where I was like, well, you know, I want
43:19
to put on something where the Soda Crackers band
43:21
and the people, the pioneers of the Bakersfield
43:25
Sound, the people that, you know, they didn't
43:27
have the recording careers like Merle Haggard
43:28
or Buck Owens, you know, where those legends
43:30
are up in, you know, the heavens of the Bakersfield
43:33
Sound. These people like Tommy, Larry, Sonny,
43:36
all these people, Jimmy Phillips, Norm Hamlet,
43:38
they were all... instrumental in their own ways
43:41
and building what we now think of as the Bakersfield
43:44
Sound. And so I wanted to put together a show
43:46
where we kind of had our band, the Soda Crackers,
43:49
kind of be the foundation and have these pioneers
43:53
of the Bakersfield Sound kind of be the stars
43:55
that they are in our community. And so we put
43:57
on three of those shows, the first one being
43:59
at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame. And then
44:02
the second one was at the Kern County Museum
44:04
in the Neon Plaza. Oh, yeah, that place is cool.
44:07
That was really cool. I've never seen it at night,
44:09
but even in the daytime, it's amazing to walk
44:11
around. It was so cool putting on a show with
44:13
all those neon signs around. And then the third
44:15
one, the last one we did. So the second one was
44:18
with Jimmy Phillips, Tommy Hayes and Norm Hamlet.
44:21
And then Sonny England came up and sang a few
44:23
songs with us. And then the last one was with
44:26
Eugene Moles, who is the son of Gene Moles, Norm
44:31
Hamlet and Jimmy Phillips and Sonny England.
44:34
And then Tommy Hayes was supposed to be there
44:36
with us at the Fox Theater, but he passed away
44:38
a couple of months before. After the first Pioneer
44:42
of the Bakersfield Islands show at the Bakersfield
44:43
Music Hall of Fame, Larry Petrie passed away
44:46
less than a month after that show. And so after
44:49
Tommy passed away, it felt like, you know, we
44:52
played a show at the Fox Theater with these legends
44:56
and it just felt like a good time to, you know,
44:59
we did three and it felt like a fourth one would
45:02
have been stretching it. So you wanted to end
45:03
on a high note. And so we kind of called it a
45:06
day in the Pioneer shows after the Fox Theater
45:09
show. Yeah, but that's so cool you're able to
45:11
honor their legacy and still have them playing.
45:14
Because we just wanted to put this show together
45:17
and give these gentlemen the stage and platform
45:20
that they deserve because of what they've built
45:22
and what they created for us. And essentially,
45:24
the Soda Crackers, all we do is just think about
45:27
what those guys did and we just try to recreate
45:29
it as best we can. Yeah. Another thing is that
45:33
I read... It was your idea to start having dances
45:36
here at the Fairfax Grange. Yeah. A friend of
45:40
the Soda Crackers, Heather, her kids would dance
45:43
here at the Fairfax Grange. And my dad had taken
45:47
photos here a long time ago and kind of vaguely
45:51
remembered this place. But I grew up in like
45:53
Westchester downtown, so I don't come out to
45:55
the east side too often. After the Pioneer shows
45:57
were done, I was trying to still kind of find
46:00
special events to put on. shows to you know play
46:03
around town and and wanted to put on something
46:07
big and better my dad and I came down here on
46:10
a Friday night and as soon as I walked in that
46:12
door I saw this place and I was like oh my god
46:14
this is perfect for the soda crackers to put
46:17
on a show here and we've put on four we call
46:20
them rancho roundups here at the Fairfax Grange
46:23
nice we put on four rancho roundups here the
46:25
Fairfax Grange and we have a fifth one in the
46:28
works for uh for the the later part of 2025.
46:32
And then I joined the board of directors here
46:34
at the Fairfax Grange last February because I
46:37
wanted to be a part of the... improvements and
46:39
the restoration of the hall and make sure that
46:42
nothing happens to it. Cause you know, we have
46:43
no honky tonks left anymore because of various
46:46
reasons. Yeah. The crystal palace is for sale.
46:49
We don't know what's going to happen to the crystal
46:51
palace. And then all but one of our dance halls
46:53
is still around the rainbow gardens, the basketball
46:56
is still around, but it's not open to the public.
46:57
So this is kind of like the last kind of old
47:00
school dance hall spot we have here in town.
47:03
So I wanted to be a part of the resurgence of
47:06
the Fairfax range. So that's awesome. Yeah. To
47:08
end the show, we always shout out some current
47:12
local artists. So do you have any current local
47:15
bands that you want to shout out on the podcast?
47:18
I mean, there's so many talented people here
47:20
in Bakersfield. And also, you know, on that note.
47:23
I really think I'm very optimistic that the music
47:26
scene and just the scene in general here in Bakersfield,
47:29
not just for country music, but for other genres
47:31
of music here in Bakersfield. I think we're really
47:34
having a renaissance and there's a lot of really
47:36
cool things happening, a lot of cool people doing
47:38
amazing stuff here in town. And it's still hard.
47:41
And I think it's always has been hard for musicians
47:44
to make a living or earn or get a following and
47:47
that kind of stuff. But like. Our buddy Kyle
47:50
Appleton plays in a bunch of bands and he records
47:53
and he repairs everybody's instruments. He's
47:55
like the glue to our scene here in Bakersfield.
47:58
So big shout out to Kyle Appleton. Devin Brinsfield.
48:02
records and writes a lot of his own music that
48:04
I love, and he's doing a great job. Los Hermanos
48:07
Mendoza are a trio of brothers who are putting
48:11
out their own music, and they're doing big and
48:13
amazing things. They're going on tour now. Vince
48:16
Galindo here in town, he's been holding it down
48:19
for a long time, and he plays great traditional
48:21
country and western music. I know I'm forgetting
48:24
a few people, but those are the four or five
48:26
that come to mind. Joey Boone, my buddy Joey
48:29
Boone's a great singer, songwriter. Yeah, there's
48:31
so many people out here. I'm sorry if I forgot
48:33
you. Yeah. You know, I would just say that again,
48:35
you know, I never thought the Soda Crackers would
48:37
last this long, especially when I and Dip started
48:40
becoming like the de facto leader. Cause I had
48:42
never been a part of a band and I never led a
48:44
band before. I just kind of kept it going. There's
48:46
a lot of like tough times and a lot of like really
48:49
tough moments where I was like, I don't think
48:51
this is worth it anymore. And I still have a
48:54
lot of those feelings every now and then where
48:56
you're just like, you know, this is tough. There's
48:58
a lot of circumstances and a lot of things you
49:00
feel like are just falling on top of your head
49:02
and you can't handle anymore. But there's that
49:04
moment where like right before the show starts,
49:07
especially when like a place at the Grange, like
49:09
I love playing at the Grange because it's so
49:11
much work and so much effort to get a show at
49:14
the Grange or anywhere like going. So just to
49:17
get the guys all in one spot with their amps
49:20
plugged in. wearing the right clothes and having
49:23
songs ready to go and everything that it takes
49:26
just to get to the point where you're ready to
49:28
play music that like last four minutes before
49:31
a show is like the most fun for me because I'm
49:34
like all the work's done all of the stuff is
49:37
behind me now we get to go up there and do what
49:40
we love and I get to play with my best friends
49:42
you know yeah there's a lot of times like I said
49:44
there's a lot of times where it's really It really
49:45
sucks. But then there's the moments where you
49:48
get to play with Norm Hamlet, Merle's steel guitar
49:50
player, and you're just like... There's nothing
49:52
else in the world that matters, you know. And
49:54
so being a part of this Grange Hall, being a
49:57
part of the Bakersfield Sound community and the
49:59
Bakersfield community as a whole really means
50:02
a lot to me. And the Soda Crackers will always
50:04
try for the most traditional, most authentic
50:07
country and western Bakersfield Sound, western
50:09
swing experience and dance for everybody. And
50:12
we hope that everybody comes out and sees one
50:15
of our shows.