Writing about the LA cowpunk scene earlier this week when we posted the Marvin Etzioni video sent me down a rabbit hole of my own, thinking about all the amazing roots music that has bubbled out of California. I lived in the LA area for a few years in the 80s, and recalling the blue skies, the quality of the light, and the incredible vistas is enough to make me jump in my car to visit. That is made even more intense by the call of the fine music that is being made there.

I am trying to remember when I first got turned onto Rose’s Pawn Shop. In my reptilian brain, think it might have had something to do with Cindy Wasserman and Dead Rock West coming up on my tour bus at SXSW in the mid 2000’s while I was still at X Country. Then again, maybe not. There was always such a flood of CDs coming my way, it might just have been the cool art on the cover that drew me to listen to the CD back then. In any case, play them I did, and I have been watching them ever since. I love the marriage of bluegrass elements with country rock. The band recently shot and recorded a series of live videos for 5 of their songs at a loft in downtown Los Angeles, and here is one of them, “Arsonist.”

-Jessie Scott