Bruce Champion is a volunteer who does free recording work for bands and events throughout the Northern California Bluegrass Community, including the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival. He uses his Mobile Recording Truck to do this work. He has encountered very expensive repairs that are needed on the truck. He has established a Go Fund Me page to help raise the needed funds. He writes:
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Friends of Bluegrass — I need your help.
For the past 9 years, I’ve been recording festivals and campouts in Central California — giving this music freely to the bluegrass community. Now, my recording truck needs repair and I’m facing serious medical costs.
I’ve set up a GoFundMe to help cover these expenses. As a thank-you for donations of $100 or more, I’ll send you a USB drive of my Complete Champion Bluegrass Collection — 9 years of priceless recordings you can copy and share.
Please read my full story and donate here: bruceontheloose@netzero.net
Donate to Please Help Bruce Champion and The Truck Recording Unit, organized by BRUCE CHAMPION
Help Bruce Champion – Bluegrass Archivist, Volunteer, and Friend
My name is Bruce Leonard Champion, and for most of my life, I’ve been a volunteer and a giver.
As a teenager and young man, I spent about 60 weeks at YMCA summer camp, most of it serving as a cabin leader.
In midlife, I volunteered 7 years at a large church, running youth group sound.
And for the past 9 years, I have dedicated myself to recording California’s bluegrass festivals and campouts, preserving this music and giving it back to the community for free.
At the campouts, friends and pickers would come by my campsite to play. I recorded their music, mixed it quickly, and handed them a CD to take home. At the festivals, I worked on a larger scale — recording full main-stage sets, often 25 bands in a weekend, using mic splitters and then spending 3 to 4 hours per set mixing and mastering the music before uploading it for the bands.
Both ways of working have meant the world to me, but the stage recordings are where I created my best, lasting work. Still, whether from a festival stage or a campground jam, I gave every recording back to the musicians, free of charge.
In 2017, Deb Livermore first welcomed me to record at Lodi. Soon after, the NCBS invited me to the Good Old Fashioned Festival and then to Brookdale, both festivals founded by Eric Burman. Eric saw that I was truly doing this for free — not a con man, but someone who wanted to preserve the music. He asked me to start recording the main stages. Since then, I’ve been honored to document the history of these gatherings.
I have now entrusted the complete Champion Bluegrass Collection to Eric Burman. Eric, who started both the GOF and Brookdale festivals more than 30 years ago, is truly the Keeper of the Flame. He continues to share this music each week on his KBCZ radio shows, ensuring that these recordings live on and reach new ears.
But now, I need help.
My 1994 GMC mobile recording truck — the heart of this project — has developed a serious gas tank leak. The repair estimate starts at 500 dollars or more. On top of that, I am battling cancer. Even with Medicare and Medi-Cal, my share of medical costs is well over 4,500 dollars, and between equipment debt and medical debt, I am facing more than 10,000 dollars in expenses.
I don’t like asking, but now I must.
What I’m Asking For:
* 10,000 dollars total to cover truck repairs, medical bills, and equipment debt.
* The first 500 dollars will go straight to repairing the truck, so I can make it to the Lodi campout and continue this work while I am able.
My Gift Back to You:
As a thank-you for donations of 100 dollars or more, I will send you a USB drive of “The Complete Champion Bluegrass Collection.” This includes 9 years of Central California bluegrass history, in MP3 format — both the main stage recordings and the campout jams that show the music at its most personal and alive
My Hope for the Future:
For years, I’ve dreamed of passing this work on, setting up a program with the CBA (California Bluegrass Association) or NCBS (Northern California Bluegrass Society) so the truck and this project can continue after me.
I’ve always given to bluegrass. Now, I am asking the bluegrass world, and my friends, to help me in return. Please donate if you can, share this with others, and help me keep the music — and this truck — alive.
Donations can be made through my GoFundMe:
Look For: Please Help Bruce Champion and The Truck Recording Unit
With gratitude,
Bruce Champion
