The Bakersfield sound was a reaction to the sweetening of the country music coming out of Nashville in the late 1950’s. It was the polar opposite to the slickly produced, string-laden orchestras that were sucking some of the soul out of much of what was coming out of Nashville at the time. The Bakersfield sounds was more about honky-tonks than theaters, and had a more raw and twangy sound with more rock’n’roll influences and produced stars such as Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Both the Beatles and The Rolling Stones paid homage to the Bakersfield soiund with The beatles covering Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally” and the Stones recording their own Bakersfield tribute in “Far Away Eyes” on the Some Girls album. ALO’s Dan Lebowitz (guitar) and Steve Adams (bass) got to jamming with friends Tim Bluhm (Mother Hips) and his wife, singer Nikki Bluhm and hit on an idea for a playshop at High Sierra last year. They added guitarist Scott Law to the mix and the set was so well received and the band enjoyed themselves so much they decided to make it more of an official side project and have done a string of gigs under the name Brokedown In Bakersfield.
