🎸🔥 Episode 16 — Jonathan Firey | From Oklahoma Bluegrass to Santa Ynez Soul 🌄✨
Chopping It Up with Keith Saarloos · Released September 18, 2025 · Santa Ynez Valley, California
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About this conversation
This one hums. Jonathan “John” Firey grew up in an Oklahoma bluegrass family (matching velvet suits and all), turned down basketball scholarships to chase songs in Nashville, became a session ace, and quietly racked up thousands of shows—from the Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry to guitar records that ended up in big-box stores (yep, that haunting instrumental you heard while shopping might’ve been John). We talk adoption, a surprise pregnancy, and the moment he and his wife chose the Santa Ynez Valley so they wouldn’t miss their daughters growing up.
John takes us inside the Granada Theatre’s sold-out David Crosby tribute (30-piece orchestra, goosebumps), his instrumental album Taste of the Valley (melodies written in a dusty Jeep pull-off), and why the Valley has its own unnameable sound—part dirt road, part ocean air, all heart. He’s a humble showman who’d rather hide behind the guitar, but the stories spill: church Sundays, denim every day, and the kind of artistry that doesn’t chase fame—it chases truth.
If you love songs that feel lived-in, press play. Then queue up CaliAmericana Vol. 3: David Crosby and Taste of the Valley on your favorite streamer. And if you’re local, say hey when you spot the tall guy in all-denim rolling a Jeep down Grand Ave. Tap in—this episode sings. 🎧🎶
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Saarloos + Sons archive host Keith Saarloos. Context photograph; not a portrait of the guest or a photograph of this recording.
