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I recently took the words to that old Little River Band song to heart and decided it was "time for a cool change."  So I gathered my wife, my nearly 3-year-old daughter, a stack of my new CDs (The Buck Owens Studios Farewell Session), and headed North to Canada.

After landing in Calgary, we headed out the beautiful rocky mountain resort area known as Banff, Alberta.  We took some breath-taking sights, ate some great food, heard some great music, and met some great people---big fans, young and old, of the Bakersfield Sound, including a Buck Owens fan who runs a place where tourists can go horse-back-riding, and brand new, newly Bakersfield-Sound-grounded young rock band from Britain. 

After a couple of days in Banff, we gradually headed to the east of the mid-west, through Swift Current and Medicine Hat, on our way to sunny, snowy city of bridges, known as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  It's bridges allow city travellers to cross the Saskatchewan river, but, musically, it seems its bridges extend all the way to Bakersfield. 

My family enjoyed interacting with relatives and my little girl had a chance to meet with relatives she had never seen or met before.  She was the life of the party. 

I enjoyed travelling down memory lane, and I used my new CD as a springboard in which to launch into discussions with people from the streets of Saskatoon about the Bakersfield Sound and where it is going today. 

It seems that there are a core group of Bakersfield Sound fans of all ages there, and, though I didn't embark upon any scientific surveys or studies, my informal observations, led me to the conclusion that the excitement about the Bakersfield Sound, and where it is headed, is even greater over there, partially because, as we all know, distance---geographical, chronological, or both, often makes the heart grow founder. 

I went to Saskatoon for family reasons and to share my roots, while fanning the flames of a Bakersfield Sound revival.  I found that the flames didn't need to be fanned.  Those flames were as alive and well as the Calgary Flames NHL team was when they won the Stanley Cup championship in 2007. 

Hence, the song you're now hearing (if you've activated the attached play station) was born.  Like many of my songs, and my musical endeavors, From the Street of Saskatoon 2 the Streets of Bakersfield, was inspired by the Homer Joy song Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam put on the charts, and by the town Homer Joy put on the map.