Even if you are not a fan of country music, you can appreciate the role people from the West Coast played in its development.
Not just any country music, either. The Bakersfield Sound --think Buck Owens and Merle Haggard--influenced several genres of music, and The Maddox Brothers and Rose were right in the middle of it all. The music world is mourning for the final member of that group; Don Maddox of Ashland died recently at the age of 98.
Musician, scholar, and podcaster Scott B. Bomar has written extensively about The Bakersfield Sound; he visits with the JX about the significant contributions of the Maddox family to American music.