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It's rooted in the past.  It's grounded in the Bakersfield Sound.  It's symbolically represented by the changing of the guard, or the passing of the torch from the Bakersfield sound generation to generations of younger artists and fans.

It's hard to define.  Some terms I've come up with are nu bako sound, krock (referring to the new crop of Kern County rock), and, most recently, AmeriKerna (like Americana music, but geographically and historically based in Kern County, and, more specifically, in the Bakersfield Sound).

When most people think of AmeriKerna music, they either think of the elders from the Bakersfield sound that are most active in passing the torch and making themselves available as mentors and rock n "role" models to generation next, like Lloyd Reading, Homer Joy, Red Simpson and Sonny Langley, or they think of singer/songwriters who have made themselves available to receive the torch while it's still burning---folks like Hank Ray and myself (though I am clearly unworthy to be mentioned right next to the likes of the names I've just introduced among the first and second generation Bakersfield sound or, in our case, Bakersfield-sound-grounded artists). 

AmeriKerna doesn't draw big crowds, and it doesn't sell millions of records---not yet anyway.  It's an underground loosely knit-group of musicians who share a desire to draw nourishment from the past as they reach for their own sound and their own musical identity (individually and collectively). 

My question to you today is this:  Is there a future in a root-oriented music that is geographically and historically linked to the evolution of the Bakersfield Sound? 

As a blog n roll artist, I supply the tunes and the topics.  You supply the talk.  The comments section remains the best place for that talk to take place. 

Do you have an opinion on the matter?  If so, share it here.