Essentials: A ten song americana trip through California

The Golden State is one of the geographical pillars of country and roots music giving rise to the Bakersfield sound, acid folk, country rock, the Paisley underground and much more.  In 2023, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville unveiled its exhibition “Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock”, which recognised the commonality of roots music, acknowledging the breadth of its constituents.  The exhibition runs through 1st September 2025 and as anyone who has visited it will tell you is essential for any fan of americana.

But this is the Essentials feature based on and around tens.  So what we have on this piece is ten songs taking their names from places in California and the order is a conceptual road trip starting in the South West of the state and ending up in the North East.  Some but not all of the performers are from California but that really doesn’t matter as ultimately, it’s a personal selection of songs fitting the theme.  Readers are encouraged to add their own choices in the comments. I suspect we could be here some time.

Number 10: ‘Artesia’ – Dave Alvin

First stop is Artesia.  One of the Gateway Cities in SE Los Angeles County, Artesia was originally a heavily agricultural area but gradually urbanised in the latter part of the 20th Century.  In the early 1990s the late Chris Gaffney wrote a song named for the town which featured on his 1992 Hightone album “Mi Vida Loca”.  The song takes a look back to teenage years growing up in the area and notes the changes that have taken place while grounding them in the characters’ lives.  Gaffney later formed The Hacienda Brothers who made four albums before Gaffney’s death from liver cancer in 2008.

The following year, YepRoc issued a tribute record “Man Of Somebody’s Dreams, A Tribute to Chris Gaffney” (2009) featuring 17 of Gaffney’s songs performed by a who’s who of the Americana world (Calexico, Dave Alvin, James McMurtry, Joe Ely, Alejandro Escovedo and many more) plus one from Gaffney himself.  Alvin’s contribution was ‘Artesia’.  He and his brother had grown up in nearby Downey and Alvin and Gaffney had been friends and musical collaborators.  Alvin’s version includes a lengthy spoken word introduction including his introduction to the song by the writer.  His performance is packed with emotion as he shares his late friend’s tale of coming of age in the Gateway Cities.

Number 9: ‘Los Angeles’ – Phosphorescent

Heading North West we arrive at Sin City itself.  Los Angeles is the stuff of legend in literature, history, film and music and there’s likely not an AUK reader who doesn’t have a picture of and view of LA in their head.  The selection ‘Los Angeles’ by Phosphorescent is the closing track on “Here’s To Taking It Easy”  (2010) and was for many years the closing song of the band’s live set.  Even the album version weighs in at just under nine minutes.  As you might expect it is epic in reach, building over its length from a relatively plaintive opening verse through a climatic rock and roll finale.

Number 8: ‘Streets Of Bakersfield’ – Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens

From LA, the road heads North to Bakersfield, an agricultural and energy hub which, most importantly for us gave its name to a whole sub-genre of country music – the Bakersfield sound whose twin pillars were Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.  The city itself is mentioned in songs by many artists stretching from country to the psychedelic americana of the Grateful Dead and the hypnotic psych rock of Black Mountain.  But the soundtrack for this leg of our trip is Homer Joy’s ‘Streets of Bakersfield’ performed by Dwight Yoakam and Owens, who first recorded it fifteen years earlier. Included on Yoakam’s  album “Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room” (1988). It was also released as a single.  With a snap and a twang, it tells the tale of the narrator’s quest for a better life.  The bounciness of the music is, as often, at odds with the story.

Number 7: ‘Kern River’ – Merle Haggard

Leaving one legend behind, the journey takes us North East to the Sierra Nevada mountains, where Merle Haggard set his heartbreaking ‘Kern River’.  The song is said to be a favourite of Bob Dylan’s and was the Haggard tune played as a tribute to the legendary musician by Dave and Phil Alvin in London just over a week after Haggard’s death in 2016.  It tells how the narrator lost his friend to the river while out swimming together; senses of both place and grief are palpable as Haggard vows “I’ll never swim Kern River again”.  From the album “Kern River” (1985).

Number 6: ‘Big Sur’ – The Beach Boys

After the mountains and tragedy, the trail makes for the coast and a celebration of the nature and beauty that is Big Sur.  With its redwood forests, jagged coastline and beaches, Big Sur is a must-see for anyone taking the trip up (or down) California’s Highway One.  It has provided the setting for literature – famously Kerouac’s “Big Sur” – films and music.  It would be hard to pen a piece picking up the essentials of California without acknowledging the Beach Boys who brought it through the speakers of millions of radios worldwide.  Their song ‘Big Sur’ is the first part of the ‘California Saga’ which made up a large part of the first side of their album “Holland” (1973).  Just over two and a half minutes long, the core piano, harmonica and guitar provide a warm backing for the beautiful lyric description of Big Sur.

Number 5; ‘Monterey’ – The Milk Carton Kids

Up the coast from Big Sur and in the heart of the California immortalised in Steinbeck’s novel is Monterey, site of Cannery Row.  Long a city with a strong artistic community its profile went up in 1967 with the iconic Monterey Pop Festival which not only provided a breakthrough platform for a lot of big acts but also boasted a bill more eclectic than many of the festivals which followed.  In 2015, the LA folk-country-americana duo The Milk Carton Kids released their fourth studio album “Monterey”.  The title track, steeped in melody, sees the duo contemplating the travelling life along with imagery of nature.  The chorus picks out the push and pull “Oh, Monterey, How can I say I’ll always stay And slip away?” as the emotional heart of the song is cushioned by the softness of the delivery.

Number 4: ‘The Lights Of San Francisco‘ – Logan Ledger

Continuing along Highway One we arrive at San Francisco.  In the musical world, San Francisco is the home to acts from many genres and has certainly been the base from which many giants of americana have emerged. Described by the Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner as “Forty-nine square miles surrounded by reality” it was also the home to a thriving bluegrass scene encompassing the likes of Jerry Garcia. Peter Rowan and David Grisman.  While many of its best-known musicians were drawn to San Francisco, Logan Ledger left the Bay Area to move to Nashville to pursue a career as a bluegrass player.  Having suffered an injury he had to abandon that course and changed tack to become a singer-songwriter.  His debut album, produced by T Bone Burnett was released in 2020 (great timing).  The penultimate song on the album is ‘The Lights of San Francisco’.  Co-written with Steve Earle, the song’s bittersweet melody and delivery frame a lyric fraught with longing as Ledger takes the part of a prisoner in Alcatraz looking out at the passing ships tormented by “the lights of San Francisco ‘cross the Bay”.

Number 3: ‘Sausalito’ – Conor Oberst

North of San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge are the hills of Marin County and along the bay side of Marin is the artistic community of Sausalito which welcomed part of the exodus of 1960s musicians from Haight Ashbury.  Sausalito was home to the Record Plant studio where a huge number of artists recorded albums and radio sessions. In 2008, Conor Oberst, together with members of his Mystic Valley Band, released “Conor Oberst”.  The second song on the album is ‘Sausalito’.  In many ways it’s a classic Oberst tune which would fit right into either a Bright Eyes album or his solo work.  The song’s story arc has Oberst and lover’s relationship rise then fall away so he suggests: “We should move to Sausalito/Living’s easy on a houseboat/ Let the ocean rock us back and forth to sleep// And in the morning when the sun rise/ Look in the water, see the blue sky / As if heaven has been laid there at our feet.” You can feel the warmth of the sun and imagine the light glistening on the waves in the bay.

Number 2: ‘Yosemite’ – Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway 

Heading East from the Bay Area to Yosemite from a relationship saved, we meet Molly Tuttle on her way from Nashville with a relationship unravelling.  Written by Tuttle, who hails from the Bay Area, and partner Ketch Secor, ‘Yosemite’ was released on her Grammy-winning “City of Gold”  (2023) album with Golden Highway. The song’s music is upbeat almost to the point of jaunty with a sweep from verse to chorus.  Lyrically it begins with the narrator’s partner suggesting a road trip to save a struggling relationship.  As the trip proceeds, it only serves to accelerate the decline rather than mend it to the point where an exasperated Tuttle tells her fellow traveller “I just can’t wait to tell you goodbye/ Cut a new trail and leave our love behind”.

Number 1: ‘Nevada California’ – The Jayhawks

The final stop on the journey requires us to head North West (or more likely West then North) to the gold rush town of Nevada City in the Sierra Nevada mountains. And, of course, the song that brings us here is The Jayhawks’ ‘Nevada California’ from their landmark “Hollywood Town Hall”  (1992) album, one of the great americana classics.  Co-written by band leaders Mark Olson and Gary Louris, it features all The Jayhawks’ trademarks – understated verse, big chorus, rich instrumentation and most of all Olson’s and Louris’ harmonies.  It underlines just how good these two sound together.

Bonus Track: ‘‘Going To California’ – Dave Rawlings Machine 

That brings the Essentials guide to California to a close, but like any good compilation it deserves a bonus track to take us around again. So here is the Dave Rawlings Machine’s take on Led Zeppelin’s ‘Going To California’ featuring John Paul Jones on mandolin.