Friday, July 30 at 6:00pm
$5 General Admission
VIP Table Reservations Available
High energy California Country - roots rockers who weave together rock ’n’ roll, country, blues and folk styles into a spirited feel good blend, a great fit for any venue from main stage to bar room, listening room to coffee house.
Years before John Surge launched his songwriting career — first as a member of power-pop bands and later as the frontman of his own country-leaning solo band, John Surge and the Haymakers — the musician grew up outside of Los Angeles. It was the early 1980s, and L.A. was a beacon for DIY-minded artists looking to create their own kind of SoCal roots music. Surge made regular trips into the city, catching shows and absorbing the diverse sounds that would eventually inspire the Haymakers' debut.
"It was a melding of punk, power pop, Paisley Underground, and roots music, and I'd go see it all," he says of those days in Los Angeles, rattling off a string of favorites — including Rank and File, the Long Ryders, and Lone Justice — whose music blended country twang with fresh, fierce energy. Decades later, he plants his flag in similar territory with John Surge and the Haymakers' Your Wonderful Life, a debut album that reintroduces Surge as a country-rock bandleader and sharp storyteller.
If Tom Petty had been raised on Bakersfield classics rather than the Byrds, his songs might have laid the foundation for Your Wonderful Life's mix of West Coast country and roadhouse rock & roll. Instead, Surge sources his musical inspiration from those seminal concert experiences of the early-'80s, resulting in a diverse album that breathes new life into older traditions. These nine songs are stacked with pop hooks, jangly guitar riffs, layered harmonies, and lyrics that shine a smoggy light on the modern-day American experience, using California — its cities, interstates, barrooms, and studio apartments — as stand-in for the country at large. It's an album about weathered characters who refuse to lose momentum, delivered by a lifelong musician who's logged plenty of highway miles.
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