The big national/international convention for bluegrass music — the World Of Bluegrass run by the International Bluegrass Music Association — will be held in Raleigh, NC on September 24-28, 2019.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society will be there, as always, looking for new ideas, new talent, and new bluegrass fun.
The Society’s highlight for 2019 will be the first Official Showcase for Santa Cruz’s AJ Lee & Blue Summit. The introduction of this popular NCBS unit to the rest of the known bluegrass world represents a big step for for the band and also for Northern California bluegrass music in general. Two members of the band, AJ Lee and Jesse Fichman are members of the NCBS Board Of Directors and NCBS President Michael Hall has been tapped to emcee the band’s performance. The band is the reigning Best Bluegrass Band in the 2019 NCBS Northern California Bluegrass Awards.
Lee has also been nominated for a Momentum Award as one of the nation’s Best Young Vocalists. Hall will help organize a reception honoring the alumni of the IBMA’s Leadership Bluegrass Class, which will be his final project for the Leadership Bluegrass Alumni Committee after 15 years. He co-founded the group, which will also present a Master Class at the convention. He will also attend his first in-person meeting as a member of the IBMA Foundation’s Board Of Directors.
There will be plenty of Californians in attendance. The California Bluegrass Association has some evening performances planned, although on a smaller scale than in the past. Many young California performers, including Crying Uncle from Alameda, will be performing on the weekend’s Wide Open Bluegrass Festival that will follow the convention proper.
The NCBS is a longtime organizational member of the IBMA.
