His name is Zachary Burnight, but in this song (audio not yet available), I took the liberty of assigning him the nickname of "Yukalaylee Zach."

Yukalaylee Zach
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2009

Yukelaylee Zach
Yukelaylee man
plays a melody
that appeals to me
on a Starbucks stage
by the streets he plays
they say he'll be back
Yukelaylee Zach

chorus:
and he plays
on his megshift stage
and he plays
perhaps he'll play all day
to a rockin', rollin' beat
inside his head
they say he'll be back
Yukelaylee Zach

Yukelaylee Zach
does'n't play guitar
doesn't stand in line
to become a star
he just does his thing
never heard him sing
they say he'll be back
Yukelaylee Zach

"Yukalaylee Zach" kickin' back

I caught Zach in a jam off the streets of Bakersfield, just in front of Starbucks on Rosedale Highway near Calloway in Bakersfield, California.  When I met him and heard him jammin' on the yukalaylee, he sounded like a seasoned rock star.  Even before hearing him sing, I wondered if he could be the next Buck Owens because he seemed to convey that bold, risk-taking attitude that was Buck's signature approach to music. 

I took a few moments to interview him, his very first BSU interview, and here's how it went down:

Dr BLT: Your yukalaylee caught my eye.  How long have you been playing that?

Zach: Not even six months, probably close to half a year.  I picked it up over at Rosedale Music.  I was chillin' in there over in their acoustic room and saw the yukes for about 50 bucks, and I said to myself, "Oh, I gotta get one."

Dr. BLT: Well that's really cool, really different.  You seem to be drawn towards different types of sounds, and you're into trying to create something new, aren't you?

Zach:  Yeah, I'm in the world music class at Bakersfield College, I'm really interested in music from different cultures and the different instruments of the world.  The world has so many more sounds to offer than what we're used to here. 

Dr. BLT: Well I understand you've been in some bands here locally as well.

Zach: Yeh, I played bass guitar in kind of an indie alternative punk-rock band, called the Action Index, and we've played quite a few shows.  We actually started as another band, the Bega Box System, same people, but we changed our name, changed our sound a little and tried to take it a little more seriously.  We played all over downtown and for these charities. 

Dr BLT:  Where did you grown up?

Zach: Simi Valley until about third grade.  We moved out here in fourth grade and we lived out on the south part of town and then we moved out here a little bit ago. 

Dr. BLT: Well, if you're familiar with the Bakersfield Sound, you know Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and all of that stuff that was going on way back in the day...

Zach: Oh, yah.

Dr. BLT: Well, one of the things I'm trying to accomplish with the Bakersfield Sound Underground blog is to bring it all together, the old, the new, different generations of artists and sounds, and experiment. 

Zach:  Really cool.

Dr BLT: And I see you fitting in with all of that so I'd like to invite you to our multi-artist, multi-band Christmas recording project.

Zach: That would be really fun.

Dr. BLT: Well, we'd really love to have you, we're looking forward to putting this all together, so I'll keep in touch with you.  So we'll take it from there.  Thank you.

Zach: Cool.  You're welcome.