Now is the time to renew your membership in the Northern California Bluegrass Society or to join for the first time.
NCBS welcomes all new and returning members. Your support of bluegrass music in our area is much appreciated at this critical time — and our volunteers have big plans! 2022 will be a great year to be a member. It only takes a moment to join or renew on this website or by mail.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society will present the return of the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival on Thursday-Sunday, August 11-14, 2022, at the San Benito County Historical Park in Tres Pinos.
Discount Advance Tickets are now on sale. Everyone receives an advance purchase discount; NCBS Members receive a deep discount with their advance purchase.
Everyone at this 28th annual event will be vaccinated.
The 2022 Berkeley Bluegrass Festival will return to the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Friday-Sunday, April 29-May 1. Single Day and Festival tickets are available. Here is the line-up:
FRIDAY, April 29
7:00pm — Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands; Tim O’Brien & Jan Fabricius; and the Jacob Jolliff Band.
SATURDAY, April 30
7:00pm — The Seldom Scene; NorthSouthEastWest Jam with Michael Daves, Tatiana Hargreaves, Missy Raines, Kristin Scott Benson, & Laurie Lewis; and Windy Hill.
SUNDAY, May 1
7:00pm — The Grascals; Missy Raines & Allegheny; and the Kathy Kallick Band.
This is the only bluegrass festival in the East Bay and is welcomed by the Northern California Bluegrass Society. Enjoy!
The Second Annual NCBS Gathering will be held on Saturday, July 16, 2022 in Loch Lomond, near Felton.
The FREE event will offer jamming, friends, musical performances, and your picnic, all in a beautiful lakeside mountain park. An afternoon of music and friends will be fun and relaxed.
Just what you need in your bluegrass life, so save the date.
The first NCBS Gathering event was held in July 2021 at the Historical Park in Tres Pinos.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes the return of the beloved Johnson Farm Pickin’ Party to the Santa Cruz Mountains on Saturday, April 23, 2022. The FREE event is hosted by Mike Johnson.
The 10-year-old event was paused during the pandemic, but is back! The relaxed day of informal music, food, and friends will be held at a new farm near Boulder Creek, not far from the original location.
Here is the official invitation from Mike Johnson:
—
Johnson Farm Pickin’ Party (resuming as 10th annual)
Picnic/BBQ/Bonfire/live music and s’mores
noon to midnight on Saturday April 23, 2022
Bring your instruments, and enjoy the day/night jamming and picnicking with friends and family.
Come by anytime early if you like, or come later and stay later. We’ll light the BBQs at 12noon and keep them hot throughout the day. Hot dogs will be provided for a “cook your own dog when you are ready” BBQ. Bring a side, salad, drinks, or deserts to share. Or just chip in $5 if that works better for you.
There are lots of trails for hiking, a nice creek for kids to play in, a rope swing, horse shoes, archery, and boules. Or you can take a nap in the hammock, or try out the rocking chairs on the front porch. Camping is also possible. (Call ahead of time to make arrangements.)
How to get there : (the new location is not far from my parents’ farm)
The address is 18549 Kings Creek Road, Boulder Creek. Your GPS will get you close. But GPS and cell phones may begin to fade out over the last ½ mile before the house.
Kings Creek Road is 2 miles north of Boulder Creek, beginning at Highway 9.
The Sawmill Restaurant and the Mountain Store are both landmarks and entrances to Kings Creek Road. Travel exactly 3 miles up Kings Creek Road, past the entrance to “Institute of Heartmath”, continuing straight for about 300 feet (10 seconds) on gravel section of Kings Creek Road. My driveway is on the left. See you there!
– Mike Johnson
My land line is 831-338-3125 if I am in the house. My cell is 831-246-4399 but does not work if I am at home. Texting works pretty well. My Email is mikeshupmobile@gmail.com.
The 2022 Brookdale Bluegrass & American Roots Festival will be held on Saturday, April 30 at its original home, the Brookdale Lodge in Brookdale. NCBS welcomes this FREE event, which is presented by Brookdale Bluegrass.
The IBMA Foundation will raffle off a top-of-the-line Huber Truetone Banjo in the second annual Strings for Dreams Bluegrass Raffle. Tickets are on sale now and the drawing is set for May 20, 2022. Proceeds will benefit the foundation’s grants and other charitable projects that support bluegrass music. Only 5,000 tickets will be sold at $20 each or 6 for $100. The drawing will be live streamed at facebook.com/bluegrassfoundation.
The IBMA Foundation is affiliated with the International Bluegrass Music Association. The Northern California Bluegrass Society is a longtime organizational member of IBMA. The first raffle held in 2021 was won by a Bay Area bluegrass musician!
The prize is a mint condition 2010 VRB-3 Truetone Huber Banjo, valued at $4,100, with two cases and straps. The banjo was donated by longtime IBMA Foundation supporter Richard Spratt.
There is no limit to the number of tickets each person may purchase. Raffle tickets may be purchased at stringsfordreams.com from April 1 (9 a.m. ET) to May 19, 2022 (midnight ET. )
The VRB-3 is Huber Banjo’s recreation of the pre-war style-3 banjo, the most common of all the 1930s flatheads. It features a mahogany neck and resonator with a 1930s style Huber HR-30 tone ring and Huber engineered rim. The mahogany neck imparts a sweetness to this model, with a warm blending of notes for a classic bluegrass sound. The rosewood fingerboard and double-cut headstock overlay are inlaid with a vintage style-3 wreath pattern. It is finished with a natural mahogany stain, with antiqued binding and antique metal finish on the nickel parts. Grained ivoroid tuner buttons complete the vintage look.
The Huber banjo comes with its original hard-shell case, a Reunion Blues banjo case, a leather strap designed by Huber, a cloth strap, an electronic tuner, and a Blue Chip thumb pick.
Your ticket purchases support the work of the IBMA Foundation year-round, including project grants for bluegrass camps and afterschool programs for kids, bluegrass academies at festivals, bluegrass academic conferences, mini-grants for band presentations at schools, college scholarships for students focusing on bluegrass-related studies, the Neil Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholar Award, the annual Bluegrass College Band Showcase at World of Bluegrass in Raleigh, Arnold Shultz Fund grants to encourage participation in bluegrass music by people of color, and a variety of educational resources for educators and students of all ages.
The IBMA Foundation is offering sequentially numbered digital raffle tickets. The purchaser will receive an emailed receipt for verification purposes. Purchasers must be living U.S. residents, 18 years of age or older, to participate and win. If fundraising raffles are illegal in your community, you will be unable to participate (states that prohibit raffles altogether are Hawaii and Utah). Tickets may not be purchased by members of the IBMA Foundation board or those involved in conducting the raffle—including staff members or immediate family members of these individuals. “Immediate family” is defined as spouse or partner, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, in-laws, or spouses of children.
Although all proceeds will benefit the IBMA Foundation, purchase of raffle tickets is not a tax-deductible expense (IRS regulation). The drawing will take place in North Carolina and will be livestreamed on the foundation Facebook page. This raffle has been organized in compliance with North Carolina General Statutes 14-309.15—Raffles. The giveaway is conducted by and benefits the IBMA Foundation. For more information on the Strings for Dreams Bluegrass Raffle, go to bluegrassfoundation.org/raffle/ or stringsfordreams.com.
Roland White, a mandolinist, guitarist, and vocalist, who pioneered bluegrass music in Southern California, has died. He had a long, creative, and influential performing career with top bands Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, the Kentucky Colonels, Country Gazette, the Dreadful Snakes, and Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass, and also with his own Roland White Band. The cause of his death was complications following a heart attack. He was 83 years old.
White’s recording career covered traditional bluegrass, but also explored the boundaries of the genre, mixing bluegrass with swing, jazz, country, gospel, and rock. He was the first to bring bluegrass music to network television.
White was a French Canadian who was born in rural northern Maine and came to Burbank, California with his family in 1954. His original surname was LeBlanc, French for White, which was adopted by the family as their new English name in California. In his early career, Roland performed in a family bluegrass band with his brothers Eric and Clarence and his sister Joanne. They came from a large musical family which included their father Eric and several uncles who played acoustic instruments.
Roland’s rise to bluegrass fame was rapid once the family band The Country Boys switched from country to bluegrass in 1955 after Roland heard a recording by the Father of Bluegrass. The brothers added Bill Ray Lathum on banjo and LeRoy Mack on Dobro, and came to the attention of Andy Griffith, which led to the band’s multiple appearances on the CBS Network’s Andy Griffith Show during the 1961 season. The Country Boys later became the Kentucky Colonels and performed at festivals across the country before the end of the folk revival caused work for the band to diminish.
Roland White performed at Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society concerts and at various Northern California festivals with three of his bands. He is best known to Northern California bluegrass fans as a member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band and as a popular instructor at area bluegrass camps.
After Roland left Lester Flatt’s band and his brother Clarence left The Byrds in 1973, the two reunited as the leaders of the New Kentucky Colonels. This collaboration was sadly cut short when Roland was seriously injured and Clarence died when they were hit by a drunk driver while loading out sound equipment following a band performance. Roland then continued his career with the popular and influential LA bluegrass and alt-country band, Country Gazette.
Roland Joseph White was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2017. In his later years, he was a volunteer sound engineer at the Station Inn in Nashville, where he organized an annual Monroe Appreciation Night. He is survived by his wife Diane.
Here are the upcoming official Northern California Bluegrass Society events for April-September, 2022:
APRIL
6 — Wildcat Mountain Ramblers, Sam’s BBQ, San Jose. (NCBS welcomed)
7 — Goat Hill Girls, Summit House, Los Gatos. (NCBS welcomed)
14 — Wildcat Mountain Ramblers, Summit House, Los Gatos. (NCBS welcomed)
15 — Wildcat Mountain Ramblers, Sheraton Four Seasons Hotel, Scott’s Valley. (NCBS welcomed)
21 — Purple Mountain Majesty, Summit House, Los Gatos. (NCBS welcomed)
23 — Johnson Farm Pickin’ Party, New Johnson Farm, Boulder Creek. (NCBS welcomed)
27 — Sidesaddle & Co, Sam’s BBQ, San Jose. (NCBS welcomed)
28 — Bluegrass Jam Onstage Show, Summit House, Los Gatos. (NCBS welcomed)
30 — Brookdale Bluegrass Festival, Brookdale Lodge, Brookdale. (NCBS welcomed)
APRIL-MAY
April 29-May 1 — Berkeley Bluegrass Festival, Freight & Salvage, Berkeley. (NCBS welcomed)
JUNE
4 — Bluegrass TBA, Pub In The Park, Red Morton Park, Redwood City. (NCBS welcomed)
4-5 — Pick & Gather Festival, Riverdance Farms, Livingston. (NCBS welcomed)
JULY
16 — NCBS Presents The 2nd Annual NCBS Gathering, Loch Lomond Park. FREE. Felton.
16 — Bluegrass TBA, Pub In The Park, Red Morton Park, Redwood City. (NCBS welcomed)
AUGUST
11-14 — NCBS Presents The 28th Annual Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival, San Benito County Historical Park, Tres Pinos.
13 — Bluegrass TBA, Pub In The Park, Red Morton Park, Redwood City. (NCBS welcomed)
SEPTEMBER
10 — Bluegrass TBA, Pub In The Park, Red Morton Park, Redwood City. (NCBS welcomed)
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER
September 27-October 1 — IBMA World Of Bluegrass Convention, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, NC. (NCBS welcomed)
The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes all new and returning members. Your support of bluegrass music in our area is much appreciated at this critical time — and our volunteers have big plans!
2022 will be a great year to be a member. It only takes a moment to join or renew on this website or by mail.
