The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes the First Annual Frankly Bluegrass Music Festival which will honor the late Frank Solivan, Sr., founder of Kids On Bluegrass & Kids On Stage.
The Amador County Fairgrounds in Plymouth, site of several bluegrass festivals over the past 40 years, but none in the past decade, will host the new festival October 9-13, 2024. The event is presented by members of the Solivan family.
The line-up: Frank Solivan & Chris Luquette, Kids On Bluegrass, Broken Compass Bluegrass, Special Consensus, Wayne Taylor & Appaloosa, Crying Uncle, Central Valley Boys, David Adkins & Mountain Soul, Kentucky Sky, and The Honey Buckets.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes the Second Annual Jamesburg Community Schoolhouse Bluegrass Festival on Saturday, September 14, 2024. The Noon-7:00pm gathering will take place at the former school, 40379 Tassajara Road in Carmel Valley.
The line-up: Eric Burman & The Brookdale Bluegrass Band, The Courthouse Ramblers, Brianna Colliard, Willow Street, and The Gilroy Drifters.
Bring a bluegrass festival chair or blanket to this charming outdoor mountain event in the highlands above Carmel Valley. Food & drink will be available.
The event will benefit the Jamesburg Community Schoolhouse. More information will be available soon.
John Paul Dabney, a longtime supporter of area bluegrass music and a Northern California Bluegrass Society member, has died. He enabled the Dabney Hicks Festivals (and campouts) at Bolado Park in Tres Pinos and the NCBS Bluegrass On Broadway Festivals in Redwood City with his financial and moral support.
In his younger years, he attended many bluegrass and other festivals and enthusiastically supported the arts in and near his hometown of San Carlos. In his later years, he livestreamed many musical events at home and occasionally made appearances at live music gatherings. He enjoyed all musical genres, especially bluegrass, traditional jazz, Fado, and Rebetica (urban Greek jazz). His principal non-arts-related hobby was rock and mineral collecting, a passion he actively pursued until his death.
He lived in San Carlos all of his life. John’s career was as a social worker with San Mateo County. He spent his career working with people with mental illness and counseling children and families. He also developed a program to assess seniors with depression and dementia. His wife of 42 years, Jane Dabney, was a social worker and computer programmer before her death in 2007. The adventurous couple traveled throughout the world after their retirement.
Peter Hicks & John Dabney at Bolado Park. (Photo: Lora Ellen Landregan)
The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes the Plumas Homegrown Americana Festival to the Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy on Labor Day Weekend.
The Wildcat Mountain Ramblers are the host band. Ramblin’ Jack Elliott will headline, along with Keith Little & Sweet Sally and the Marin County Breakdown, plus more!
Gateway to the Plumas Homegrown Americana Festival.
Sonia Shell, famed solo banjoist and singer, will perform live on Monday Night Bluegrass on KKUP Radio, 91.5FM in the South Bay and Monterey Bay Area and online at www.kkup.org. The program will also feature recordings from her new solo CD.
The program will run 6:00-9:00pm. Program Host Mike Russell is usually on the air on the second Monday night of each month but is doing his show on the third Monday due to last weekend’s Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival. NCBS President Michael Hall will interview the artist.
The San Benito County Historical Park sported many new trees during the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival last weekend. The addition of the approximately 30 trees had been an important upgrade for the park sought by the Northern California Bluegrass Society.
The trees were originally grown by a Gilroy nursery for use in a large Alphabet (Google) office development in San Jose that was postponed or cancelled. REACH, a local environmental tree-planting organization is working with the San Benito County Historical Society to plant the donated trees at the park.
The San Benito County Historical Society’s Anita Kane organized the acquisition, siting and planting of the new trees. NCBS President Michael Hall helped with locating the trees around the audience area. NCBS & SBCHS Volunteer Gary Zatkin is watering the trees on a weekly basis to ensure their survival during their first year.
Your membership in the Northern California Bluegrass Society supports bluegrass music in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area, and in all of Northern California.
Join or renew your NCBS Membership on this website or by mail.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival, held August 8-11, 2024 for the 30th time, was well-covered in the press. Read all about it!
The Northern California Bluegrass Society supports local bluegrass music. The Society is a California Not-For-Profit Corporation with Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) status that is also known as the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society. The NCBS/SCBS Tax ID No. is 94-2907716.
Mail-In Donations: NCBS/SCBS, PO Box 390846, Mountain View, CA 94039-0846.
The members of the Northen California Bluegrass Society elected the 2024-2025 Board of Directors on Saturday, August 10, 2024 at the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival in Tres Pinos. All the incumbents were returned for another year. They are:
Gary Anwyl of Palo Alto, Bruce Bellochio of Brookdale, Eric Burman of Bonny Doon, Scott Conroy of San Luis Obispo, Bruce Edmundson of Sunnyvale, Michael Hall of Redwood City, Lois Kellerman of Mountain View, Joanne Minasi of Modesto, and Mike Russell of Fremont.
