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The Soda Crackers - Talk Bakersfield Sound, B-Sides & Classic Country | Rugged Revival

16 December 2025 27:31

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There's something refreshingly unpretentious about a band that started as a Wednesday night jam session in someone's Frogtown living room, complete with beer and pizza, that's now releasing a debut album celebrating the sonic DNA of Bakersfield's greatest era. The Soda Crackers—a five-piece with an average age that barely cracks the 30-something mark—aren't trying to reinvent the wheel. They're just determined to remind us why it rolled so perfectly in the first place.

Lead singer Zayn Adamo recently sat down to discuss the band's freshly released debut, and what emerges from the conversation is a portrait of musicians united by geography, genuine affection for classic country, and an almost missionary zeal to resurrect the B-sides and deep cuts that defined the Bakersfield Sound at its peak. These aren't songs that get radio play or streaming algorithm love. These are the tracks that filled honky-tonks and dance halls, the ones that showcased the virtuosity and showmanship that made Bakersfield legendary.

We would just play songs that we all love and hang out for four or five hours on Wednesday nights.

The Soda Crackers

The band's origin story carries its own poetry. Born from late-2020 hangouts at Josh Sorheim's place, when the world was fractured and people were searching for ways to connect, The Soda Crackers crystallized gradually—first as a rotating cast of friends playing music they loved, then as a more formal outfit following their official first show in October 2021. What's striking is how organically their aesthetic developed. There wasn't some calculated business decision to "do Bakersfield Sound." Instead, the geography and genealogy were already there, baked into the lineup.

Adamo himself hails from Bakersfield and still lives there. His brother—currently based in Oklahoma City, where he's been remote-recording fiddle tracks for the album—grew up in the same city. Their drummer, Jeff D. Rose, is likewise Bakersfield born and raised. That hometown connection matters profoundly here. It's the difference between pastiche and genuine lineage. These aren't outsiders playing dress-up in Western Swing clothing. They're inheritors.

I was born and raised in Bakersfield. I live there currently and that relationship with LA and Bakersfield was always there and very strong.

The Soda Crackers

What makes The Soda Crackers particularly compelling is their willingness to honor the instrumental mastery that the Bakersfield greats took for granted. Western Swing and honky-tonk, at their best, were never about simplicity—they were about virtuosity deployed in the service of melody and groove. The twin fiddles that weave through the album, contributed from multiple studios across Oklahoma and the South, aren't there as nostalgia bait. They're there because that's what the music demands.

The conversation also hints at generational bridge-building within the band itself. The youngest members clock in at 27; others hover in their late forties. That's not an impediment to artistic coherence—if anything, it suggests a band where experience and hunger coexist, where someone who's been playing country music for decades can work alongside musicians discovering these traditions with fresh ears. The result is something that feels neither museum piece nor trendy revival.

Their debut single "TwoStep Solution," which dropped around a year ago, apparently caught enough ears to build momentum leading into this album release. It's the kind of track that probably sounded strange in an algorithm age—direct, unironic, rooted in a very specific tradition—yet it found listeners anyway. That's because authenticity still matters, even if you have to work harder to find it.

In an era when country music has largely abdicated its honky-tonk heritage in favor of Nashville's slick machinery, The Soda Crackers represent something increasingly rare: musicians who've deliberately chosen to go backward in order to go somewhere true. They're not interested in chasing playlists or radio-friendly production. They're interested in the smoky beer joints and dance halls, the unsung heroes, the forgotten B-sides, the instrumental conversations between fiddle and steel guitar that used to define Saturday nights in California's central valleys.

Their debut album feels like both a love letter to Bakersfield's golden age and a quiet argument for its ongoing relevance. If you've wondered what the Bakersfield Sound might sound like in younger hands, when the people playing it actually grew up in the shadow of its legends, the answer is now available. Listen to the full episode to hear Zayn discuss the album, the band's journey, and why some traditions are worth keeping alive.

What's going on y'all? This is uh Slim Chance Cowboy with the Rugged Revival. I'm here with Zayn Adamo. Adamo >> right. Yep. >> Damo with lead singer of the Soda Crackers. Thanks for joining me, Zayn. Uh I appreciate your your time today. >> Thank you for having me. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, let's go ahead and jump in and get started. Your guys debut album came out, correct me if I'm wrong, last Monday, the first. >> Yeah, it's a week old. Yeah, >> a week old. a week old today. Um, before I jump into some of my my questions here, I actually um I'm going to give a shout out to Donnie Cutler. I think he was the one that he posted uh probably around this time last year when your guys first single dropped. Um, TwoStep Solution. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We know Donnie really well. I saw him uh was we had a show in Hollywood on Friday and saw him um there that night with we were playing with the Cowpokes that night. >> Oh, cool. Yeah. They're they're they're a cool band, too. Yeah. Um, and so he had posted something about you guys with the song and I was like, "What is this?" And I kind of went and and I think I, you know, added the single to all my playlist right about then. So, yeah, I've been uh, but I'll be honest with you, I I've been following you guys and I had no idea the record was coming out until probably maybe the week before or like the Friday before. So, I definitely put it on my to-do list. I was like, I'm gonna check that out when it comes out. So, I've been I love the record all the way through. So, we'll >> appate that into that. Yeah. So, first off, um, when was the, cuz I don't know the age of your band members, but when was the band formed and how did you settle on this type of music? And the reason why I asked that is because like uh I'll kind of go I'll go off on a small tangent. Um, I was in a hard rock band when I was um like a teenager, you know, kids in the basement. I with some older friends. I was a drummer, but like I was the youngest and they were pretty good at at guitar to be honest with you. And um it was funny because we wanted to sound like you know we listened to all the heavy metal stuff like Slipnotica but like when we got to playing we discovered that like a softer rock ballads kind of a slower songs and it's like we I remember us sitting back and being like man why can't we play fast like the music we like? So, I've I've always just been curious um with you and your band members um is this style of music like the western swing western swing straight edge honky tonk was that something you guys all loved and enjoyed or did it just kind of come about that like hey this is something that we can really do? >> Yeah, you know the the band um it kind of started as like a jam session at our buddy Josh Sorheim's house in Frogtown. It's like a neighborhood of LA kind of by Dodger Stadium. >> Okay. And um that happened um late 2020. Um and we started jamming. Guys would bring beers and pizza. We would just play songs that we all love and just hang out for four or five hours on on Wednesday nights. And then we started, you know, getting enough songs together as a group. And then we started putting some shows together. And then people kind of, you know, different went down different paths of their life, went on to go do other things. And then before we know it, um I was leading the band. And we've been in a band now for our first show. technically as a soda crackers was in October of 2021. So just about four years and some change old now, but we've always um really liked Western Swing. We've always liked Honky Tonk, but um I was born raised in Bakersfield. I live there currently and um my little brother who was a part of the band and still is a part of the band um he lives out in Oklahoma City now from Bersfield. Our drummer Jeff D. Rose from Bakersfield. So we always had this like kind of Bakersfield ccentric mindset and that kind of relationship with LA and Bakersfield was always there and very strong and very well represented and so we just kind of naturally gravitated towards becoming like a Bakersfield sound band. >> Yeah, definitely. So okay, that's that's cool. Now your brother living in Oklahoma City, how does that how does that translate? >> We get him when we can. So he uh he went to graduate school at OU and um so we used to get him for like the big major holidays for school breaks. Um but he did some recording remotely out in Oklahoma for this record. So we have some twin fiddle tracks in there. >> He did I would say he probably did about 80% of the fiddle in the in the um the album from a couple studios he was using in Oklahoma City and in Norman, Oklahoma. >> Oh, that's awesome. So um I'm not even going to try to guess, but how old are the general range of the band? How how old are you? How old are you guys? >> Yeah, so the youngest guys u are my little brother and our steel guitar player, they're 27 >> and then Jeff is somewhere in his late 40s >> and kind of h around most of the guys though are like early 30s most part. >> Okay. Yeah. It's just for for whatever reason I thought you guys might have been a little younger and I'm like man this is awesome. That's some a little bit older these days. >> Yeah, I know. I was like cuz I was getting ready to say like man if these if these if these cats are in their like early to mid20s that's awesome that you guys are playing this type of music and that it's still alive you know um >> most of us we kind of started when the band started we were kind of saying goodbye to our 20s so >> there you go as it happens man >> that's a whole another song right there um so I I noticed that the album included u some cover songs um >> uh Dimlights thick smoke which is um pretty standard um >> uh why am I blanking on the wind Stewart It's a It's such a beautiful >> day. >> Yep. Such a beautiful day, which is a standard Bakersfield song. I think you kind of have to have that Win Stewart, which by the way, I I posted on my on my socials uh a couple days ago, a couple of his records are finally on streaming. So, >> yeah, >> I was I was able to sit down and and kind of um because I haven't heard much of Win Stewart other than some of the songs you always hear. >> We um had the privilege u we we got to meet uh Wen Stewart's daughter, Ren Stewart. She lives out in like the Fort Worth area and we just went on our first ever outofstate tour um a couple weeks ago at the beginning of November and um when Wyn's daughter Ren um came up and sang It's Such a Pretty World Today with us at the Broken Spoke. That's awesome. >> Adair Saloon in Dallas when we were playing Texas efforts. >> That is really cool. I bet I bet she was stoked that people are still playing her her father's music. He's >> amazing singer. Amaz she she's just like her dad. looks just like her dad, sounds just like her dad. She's she's an amazing artist, an amazing person, too. >> That's awesome. So, you guys had you had that, Dim Lights, and I believe Silver Wings >> on on the album. So, what um >> and we also had this uh song um I'm a truck driving, pool shooting, son of a gun by another sound artist, Sunny England, who's still with us, and he comes to our shows and he kind of was um coming out in like the late 60s, early 70s era, too, as well. >> Great. You know, I I don't know much about that song. I know it was another California guy or Devon Princefield cut it. >> Yeah. >> Um and I thought it was his song actually. I I had no idea that it had anything prior to that. So that's cool. So how' you guys did any of those songs mean anything to you that that the band that you guys were like, "Hey, we got to put the song on the record or was it just three songs that you guys kind of jelled and it and it worked?" >> The the covers. >> The covers. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, we again we uh as our debut album LP, we wanted to let everybody know who we are and what we're about. And so we wanted everything and all the decisions to come back to the Central Valley of California to Bakersfield specific. >> So all three all four of those songs have a very deep direct connection to Bakersfield. And so we've been playing those uh those covers for a while. And so we kind of just all came together and we wanted to do an album where we had some originals we were thinking about incorporating to have more of like maybe seven to eight originals, but we felt like um this band got started as a a group of friends who just jammed on songs we all loved. And so we kind of decided to lean a little bit more into the covers and um have we have six originals and four covers on this debut album. >> That's a nice blend. I mean, look, country music history is people just recording the songs that they like of other songwriters. I mean, you go back to the 60s and 70s. I mean, so many of these songs were covered so many times. >> Um, I actually don't even know who the first person to cut like Dim Lights because that that song's been covered by a hundred people. I'm assuming it's goes back to like uh I'm sure the Maddox uh Maddox Brothers and Rose probably had a had a cut on it at some point. >> I'm sure they did. It was written by Joe Mayus and Rose Lee Mayus about the Blackboard Cafe. And the Blackboard Cafe is where most people consider the Bial Sound got started and created. It was pretty much the best and rowdiest and well I've heard a lot of conflicting reports. The Blackboard Cafe got torn down in I think the late 90s and its heyday was more like the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Um, but it was pretty much like the hub for anybody on the West Coast. If you were playing the West Coast, you made a stop at the Blackboard. And um Joe Mayus and Rosie May wrote Denim Lights Thick Smoke about the Blackboard Cafe. >> Interesting. Yeah, I know that song's been covered god hundreds of times. It's a great song. It's just one of those songs that I think every every band has to play, you know? So, >> yeah, >> that's cool. Now, the other um the other the other uh originals, were there is there like one >> one songwriter in the band? Is it you, or was there just a lot of co-rits? You guys just got in a room and wrote the original songs? Yeah, I wrote so I wrote Two Step Solution on my own and then I also wrote Going Broke Living Rich and Tomorrow's Used to Be. So those are my three songs and then um our guitar player Ben McCarthy, he wrote Blackboard Boogie. Going back to the Blackboard Cafe, Blackboard Boogie >> as an instrumental. >> Yeah, love that. That song really really rips. I love I love a good instrumental, man, with with the tight band. I just I love it. >> Oh, thank you. Yeah, I think the the art of the country instrumental sometimes gets lost a little bit and um so we wanted to kind of pay some homage to like you know Buckaroo and now and you know all these um and then he also wrote Don't Start a Fire. Ben McCarthy wrote Don't Start a Fire >> as well. >> Yeah, actually I think Tomorrow's Used to be and TwoStep Solution are probably my two favorites on the album which he wrote. >> Uh yeah, and then uh Blackboard Boogie was I was just my foot was just tapping along, tapping along, tapping along. I'd love a good instrumental. Actually, I have I have a whole stack of records over there um that I got to listen to. I have the Buckaroo Strike Again as one of them I found. So, I found a box of records at at an estate sale. So, um it was pretty cool. So, um so the recording process of the album, so I know the type of music you guys are doing. It's, you know, straightforward. >> There's no frills. Uh there's no crazy effects. There's no crazy production. At least not that I heard any kind of production techniques. I mean, I'm assuming it was tracked live other than your brother playing. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Recorded live and then um we recorded down in Northridge at Dee Dickerson's uh studio down there and um we got we got everything done in two days and they were you know 12 hour days a piece and um okay >> we we got it all kind of got it laid down and got everything done. But yeah, we did everything live in the room just as if um you were at a show hearing us, you know, at a at a bar or a dance hall. >> That's that's what it sounds like. So given given the um the classic sound of the music, did you guys have any unique recording techniques or devices that were used or you know was it all pretty much modern stuff or did you guys record on like some old old platform or something? Yeah, we um so uh Deep recorded straight to real. Um and uh we also used all his uh vintage mics and vintage tube amps. And our league guitar bin has a a Gibson arch top from the 50s. You know, our steel guitar players playing a a showbud from the 70s. So, it's all kind of, you know, all kind of vintage equipment almost from head to toe. >> Yeah. And I kind of asked the question because you you can kind of hear it as like the listener. you can kind of hear like not only does the band have this like throwback sound, but you can also kind of hear it in the production. And so that that's why I asked the question. I'm like, man, they they had to have used some like vintage stuff because you >> it doesn't quite sound modern, which by the way is a good thing. So >> yeah. Yeah, we tried to, you know, there was a very small and kind of budding recording industry out here in Bakersfield in that kind of heyday of the BAL sound. Tally records was the um was more of the major label out here. That's who Merl um when he first got started. Um, and so, you know, those guys were recording in their guest rooms or their garages and kind of just figuring out and seeing what worked, seeing, what didn't work, and just really kind of grassroots. And so, we wanted to capture that kind of essence in this this album. >> Yeah, definitely. So, I guess that's a good segue into my my next question. So, I've been doing a couple of these interviews now. Um, and I love exploring and and and tying things together on all like the micro communities of country music. Um, we all know Nashville. Okay, it's fine. Yeah, >> there's Austin. Austin and I guess Texas in general. Um I know they all come from different areas of Texas that but you know there's uh I talked to a songwriter from New York City and there's actually a pretty big scene up there. Uh pretty good bluegrass scene up there too. Uh the Pacific Northwest has a lot of things happening right now. There's all the guys in Wyoming and Montana that's saying the western stuff. But to me, and I've probably come around to this in the past decade or so or whatever, but California is actually a and I guess the the more than casual music fan would know this, but maybe just the regular run-of-the-mill country music fan does not, but like California is an immense and actually still right now there's a lot of stuff going on in LA. Um, seems like every time I'm hearing some honky tonk banger that I like, I'm like, where are these guys from? Oh, of course LA. You know, it's like they're not coming from Louisiana or Nashville. I mean in like west of Texas for instance, you know, Jerry Zinn and his guys. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, and there's the cow pokes you talked about. There's a lot of stuff happening. So, what does that what kind of a pride? I'm sure you have a lot of pride because you just talked a lot about the Bakersfield, but like you know, what does that mean that you guys are a part of this like tapestry of pretty rich country music history that a lot of people really don't know about? >> Yeah. You know, I I take a lot of pride and I feel like there's a responsibility of me being a native Bakersfield to um represent our town and our town's music um as authentically as we can. And so I all decisions I make as a frontman and band leader. I always think about like what would win when Stewart do, what would Tommy Collins do, what would Buck, Merl, Billy Me, what I always just think about how they did things, how they approached things, and I listen to all the stories I can. We're very fortunate to have a few of um like Norm Hamlet who played with Merl Haggard for nearly six years >> is still with us and I have lunch with him as much as many times as I can just to like soak up stories and how he handled things on the road and what Merl kind of talked about and all that kind of stuff. And so um I love kind of being an ambassador and the band's kind of an ambassador for the basial sound that real 40s 50s60s era of the basial sound. And then um there's so much cool things happening out here on the West Coast and there's a lot of uh good people like our buddy Jeffrey Miller who's up in Sacramento. Sacramento has a great scene as well. >> His new his new record's good too. >> Yeah. So we we we love going up there and he's been really helpful and kind of come down here and well it seems like a lot of the West Coast is really we're starting to really pick up some steam here pretty pretty quickly. >> Yeah, I would definitely say that. I mean, the past couple years, I feel like everything that I've like really liked has all been like California based. And it's it's crazy because like um you know, I'll I'll say that to uh I'll give you a funny story. Uh I have a 13-year-old and he's he's upstairs right now. And um he asked he's into country music, but more modern stuff, but I I I put stuff on his playlist all the time. Um I I sneak stuff in there >> for him to kind of like absorb. Um I do know he likes Jerry Reid. Uh but I mean Jerry Reed's very charismatic. I mean, so but um >> he asked me about 30 minutes ago, um who are you interviewing again? And I I I I told him the name of the band and everything and I said they're from California and he was like California, dude. He was like doing that stuff and I'm like see that's the typical I mean he's 13. He would know the difference but like >> that's the typical response that I would get from almost a lot of people where I'm like hey you know there's actually a lot of really good country music coming out of California like in LA and they're like what? No there's not. I'm like uh no there definitely is. So, >> we um we got um we got to go out to Texas and Oklahoma and I was really um I was really excited to kind of show people that, you know, a lot of people who aren't from California think there's just the Bay Area and then LA in terms of like, you know, surfer kind of dude LA. But we kind of showed them like no, California is a very big state. It's very similar and very different in many ways to where we were playing out in Texas and Oklahoma. But, you know, Bakersfield specifically almost, you know, I'm a descendant of Okeis. Um, a lot of people from the Dust Bowl migrated out to the the central valley. And so, you know, I'm only two generations away removed from, you know, my my roots out in Oklahoma. So, there's a lot of people and a lot of just about every single Bakersfield sound musician came from uh Missouri, came from Oklahoma, came from Texas. The only major recording artist from Bakersfield was Merl Haggard. Everybody else came from from the Dust Bowl. >> Right. Right. I mean, Merl's parents came to Brooklyn before he was born, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. But he was born in um kind of like a neighborhood um just north of the Kern River called Oil. >> Oil. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then Buck Buck was born in Texas, came to came to California. Yeah. So, >> from Oklahoma City, when Stewart, I think, is from Missouri. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yep. Yep. I think you're right. Yeah. Yeah. I was actually reading when I was absorbing the three or four win records that came on streaming. I I was looking up some stuff and I was like, "Oh, he's from Missouri." >> Yeah. >> Another another family that migrated west. You know, it's kind of it's a cool little history lesson. So, >> yeah. >> Um so, two more things, I guess. The first one, um what's next for you guys? I know the debut album just came out. Um what are your plans for for 2026? Is there any you guys just going to be hanging out in California or you guys got some other big plans coming up? >> Yeah, so our last show of the year is this Saturday here in Bakersville. We have one kind of like true honest dance hall left still in Bakersfield and um I'm a part of the board of directors at that dance hall, the Fairfax Range. >> So we're we're helping keep the lights on at that place and we put on shows there. So we're having our debut album show there with uh Emily Rose and the Rounders. They're coming up from LA. >> Yeah, she's uh she was playing uh I saw Orville Peek live and she was playing guitar for him last year. >> Yeah. Yeah. We're excited. That's gonna be her first time in Bakersfield and we're really looking forward to to having her up there. So, that's going to be a great a great time. And then looking forward to 2026, we're going to do some more out of state stuff hopefully. Definitely go back out to Texas and Oklahoma and then kind of just keep keep chipping away. I would like to record more, too. Make some more time for that and just kind of see how the how the next year goes for us. >> Well, if you're any anywhere close to the East Coast, I'll come see a show. But I know that's a lot to ask for a band from California and so it's a lot to ask, but you know, we got some places around here. Um, >> if you would have told me like two or three years ago we we'd be playing the Broken Spoke in Texas, like I would have laughed you out, you know, there's no way. There's it's just it's it seems like it's so hard and so difficult until you start putting the the pieces together and figuring out a way to make it happen. So, I would love, you know, we met a gentleman at our show last night in Fullerton from uh Fagatville, North Carolina, >> and he was telling me about the Carolas, Tennessee, Georgia, and all these places. is and I was like, you know, it would we would love to go out there, too, as well. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, it's um um shoot, what was I going to say? Uh yeah. No, it's I would uh I was talking to somebody um the other day and um Chef I forgot I was going to say we were talking about touring and I I forgot. Oh, the broken spoke. >> Um yeah, I I visited Texas. It was like kind of a lifelong thing. Um, my paternal grandfather who I never met was from Texas and I did not know he was a Texan until I was like 22 and I was like, "Wow, it makes sense. I'm obsessed with Cowboys and stuff. It all makes sense now." But anyway, so I visited Austin and I went to the broken spoke and um yeah, I mean it it was like going to like your like church or something. I like I I couldn't just walk in the door and be like, "Oh yeah, I'm here." like it it almost um not to sound like stupid or ridiculous but there was something like romantic >> and I kind of just like stood there and I I couldn't believe I was standing here. I mean, it's just a building, but like >> the history that place has and the people, the Willie Nelson booth and, you know, the Jerry Jeffs of the world and and you know, Bob Wills probably later in his life, but um just the people that had been there and like what that meant to me being like a country music, you know, fanatic, I it kind of took my words away for a minute. Like I I wasn't really saying much. That was because I was just taking it all in. And I spent a very long night there. Saw a band uh saw a couple bands play actually and um it was awesome. It was it was such a great place. >> That's the thing, you know, and there's on one hand I'm I'm optimistic about Baker. Bakersfield I feel like is really kind of going through a rebirth and there's people like our buddy Devin who's putting out great music and there's a lot of great talented musicians here in town and uh but Bakersfield used to have six seven eight nine broken spokes and we used to have dance halls we used to have honky tonks and slowly but surely they kind of just you know fell into wrong hands got shut down got turned to a tire shop you know and before we know it we have no historic honky tonk left anymore and um there's You know, there's one dance hall, the Fairfax Graange, that's still it's got its doors open and then there's another dance hall that's now kind of like a banquet kind of center. So, it's not really what it used to be at all, but the structure is still there. But, we used to have, you know, we would have plenty of places to play with the history that the Broken Spoke has, but Bakersfield, unfortunately, we kind of lost that that kind of um uniqueness over the decades. But I think uh with people doing really cool stuff here in town, recording, going out and kind of showcasing what Bakersville is doing right now, I think we'll turn the ship around real soon. >> Definitely, man. >> Well, before we part, uh a little quick little fun bonus question here. Um, I know that thing said one, but if there was three artists that you could take with you, you know, the old question, you're on a secluded island, you can bring three artists, full back cataloges, discoraphy with you, but no one else. What would your three artists be that you would choose? >> Oh man, that's tough. >> I know. >> In no particular order or >> Yeah, just just whatever. Yeah, whatever. Three. Yeah. >> Well, for sure Bob Wills. Bob Wills for sure. Um, Merl Haggard. >> Yep. And then I would have to like I don't know. It's it's a tie between Buck and Win I think. But leaning towards Buck, >> but I feel bad. I love Win too. >> I know. But when I had to answer that question, I thought about depth more than like my three favorite artists because >> Yeah. >> If I'm going to be on an island, I got to have a lot of material. >> Yeah. >> So, you got to have someone that has a massive discoraphy like Merl. Merl would probably probably be in my three. Probably. I would. Um, I'm a big time George Jones fanatic, so uh, yeah, he he would definitely be in there. Yeah, George and Haggard. And then like the third artist for me might be outside of country. I don't know. I'd have to really think about that. Um, I would want to go Johnny Paycheck, but the because I'm also a big Johnny Paycheck fan, but the discoraphy is not there. I mean, he's got, you know, seven, eight, nine really good records. Uh, and that's really about it. So, but yeah, I just thought that'd be um uh I I I recorded another artist uh interview with her from Virginia and she hit me with John Prime, Tom T. Hall, and Eda James. And I was like, "Wow, that's a pretty good >> Tom T. Hall." Wow, that's a pretty good uh It was pretty eclectic >> uh selection there, but she had some pretty good reasons why. So, yeah. been known and I've had people say I'm a little too nar I need to broaden my horizons a little bit but I just really keep keep digging the and just trying to go deeper and deeper into the the rabbit hole with those guys and for me like my favorite bial sound artist is Buck Owens because my favorite era just for a lot of reasons just I think the 1960s is just very very unique and very um interesting about that time of period in America and especially the country music that was coming out and Buck Owens from like 63 to 68 67 >> was unstoppable >> couldn't be Dutch and I think some of the best country music in and all of country music happened in the 60s and Buck Owens Buck Owens was his own competition that just blows my mind you know >> yeah no I've I've consistently said >> that um it almost goes in order maybe but >> the 60s was absolutely the best decade for for music I think I think there's for all genres And I think that's cultural. I think it's technology. Um the economy, whatever you name it, it all just kind of happened. Uh rock and roll, if you're into Beatle Mania happened. I I can't stand the Beatles, but Beetle Mania happened. Um country music, the Nashville sound, and then later in the decade, there was um new guys coming up, you know, Conway Twitty, Charlie Pride, and some of those some of those, you know, Capital Records stuff and the truck driving stuff. And >> yeah, Soul, I mean, I'm a big time actually. Soul is probably like country has all these little subg genres that I'm obsessed with. But >> number two main genre, I love 60s Mottown stuff. I mean, >> yeah, >> to me it's just it's just fantastic. I mean, it never gets old. So, like >> yeah, to your point, I mean, the Buckaroos, I mean, you put on you put on a Buck Owens record today with the Buckaroos and it still blows musically it still blows people's minds. It's it they were so tight as a band. Uh the musicianship was just it was so tight. And you you you read about that weird thing that Don Rich and Buck had, they kind of like knew where the other person was going. They were like kindred spirits almost. So yeah, I've always said that with the 70s coming next and then maybe back to the 50s and then probably 80s and 90s, it's actually going like downhill. It kind of it kind of regresses in order. >> Yeah. >> I love the 70s. All the Willian Whan and Jerry Jeff and the Texas stuff. And um even I'm I'm a big fan of 70s uh rock too and yacht rock. I mean yacht rock's great. So uh so yeah. All right, man. Well, I don't mean to take up more of your time. I can talk I can talk about country music for three more hours. So um so everybody, Zay Adamo with Soda Crackers. Uh debut album is out now. I would recommend you go see a show if you're in Cali. Uh buy the merch, buy the album on Band Camp or the website. Do you guys have a vinyl out? Yes, we do. We have two colors. We have a limited edition tequila sunrise and then we have it in standard black too as well. >> Great. Uh where can you buy the vinyl from your website? >> On our Yeah, the soda crackers.cartel.com. It's our online store. >> Uh I actually might be I did not know the vinyl was available yet. So I will probably be there to pick up some vinyl myself because I I went to our Instagram. We got our link tree and all of our links and just just uh take you right there. >> Great. Well, uh, Zayn, thanks so much for your for your time, man. I love the album. I'll be plugging I'll be plugging it and showing people and telling people to to listen to it because it's it's good stuff. It's what country music should be. So, I appreciate I appreciate your time. >> Thank you. And then if you're ever coming through Bakersville, let us know. >> I will, man. It's California in general is on my travel list. It has been for you. I've never been further west than Las Vegas. So, um, >> do it. >> It's definitely on my on my list, man. >> Sounds good. Thank you. >> All right, bud. Take care. Authority.

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