A really fine show came through the Sierra Nevada Brewery’s Big Room in Chico, Calif., on Nov. 16, 2011 - with Brokedown in Bakersfield. The new band formed organically at the High Sierra festival in July, and features Tim Bluhm (Mother Hips), Nicki Bluhm (The Gramblers), Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz (ALO), and Scott Law (Darol Anger, Honkeytonk Homeslice), along with ALO rhythm section members Dave Brogan and Steve Adams.

The amalgamation of players kicked out twangy, country-roots stuff aka the Bakersfield Sound, and featured covers of such luminaries as Merle Haggard (“Working Man Blues,” “Mama Tried,” “California Cottonfields,” “Okee From Muskogee”), Buck Owens (“Hello Trouble,” “Together Again”), and Gram Parsons (“Luxury Liner,” “You’re Still on My Mind”). The show also included a couple of originals, as well as Nicki Bluhm’s nice cover of Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight,” and Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City.” The band also revived old classics “Six Days On the Road,” and “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.”

The players were technically proficient, but more than that, Brokedown in Bakersfield delivered the heritage-heavy material with just-right quantities of strength, reverence, grace, and sophistication.

The band’s press kit appropriately describes the band: “Brokedown in Bakersfield showcases the striking songwriting and instrumentation of guitar-slinging country sounds that added oil to the Dust Bowl life of ‘60s-era Southern California – on the road, in the truck, out the back, and at the honky tonk.” Images, shot for the Big Room, ©Alan Sheckter / AlSheck@comcast.net. Linking to this gallery is permitted, but individual photos may not be republished without documented consent from the photographer.