Category: Obituaries

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.

 

 

Dick Clark, an early leader and volunteer for the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society (now the Northern California Bluegrass Society), and a beloved Santa Claus for children, died today of congestive heart failure. He was 86 years old and had long retired from San Jose to California’s Gold Country.

Dick and his late wife Joyce Clark were fixtures at all SCBS concerts, campouts and festival campsites in the 1980s and 1990s. The couple were big fans of the pioneering all-women band Sidesaddle (later Sidesaddle & Co). “Dick & Joyce” were early ambassadors for the young South Bay & Santa Cruz bluegrass organization, staffing the SCBS Booth at all summer festivals and at Society concerts. Many current members were initially recruited to join the club by the enthusiastic couple.

The couple also volunteered to help run SCBS events like concerts, jams, and the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Fair, held each May to kick off the summer bluegrass season. They frequently helped with the important monthly task of hand collating, folding, stapling, and mailing the Society’s Bluegrass By The Bay magazine. They also helped organize board meetings and “Bowling For Bluegrass” fundraisers to support the fledgling organization.

The couple traveled nationally to support Sidesaddle, Northern California bluegrass and the SCBS. The Clarks also helped start the NCBS Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival in Tres Pinos.

At major festivals like the CBA Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley, Dick & Joyce joined with their friends Dick & Judy Dowell to host the SCBS camp that attracted local and touring musicians for nightly jams. The “Two Dicks Cafe” fed campers a fine breakfast each morning. In later years, the Clarks volunteered backstage at the CBA festival.

In 2010, NCBS honored the Clarks and the Dowells with Lifetime Achievement Awards at the NCBS Bluegrass On Broadway Festival in Redwood City.

Dick enjoyed his years in the US Navy and then had a long career building steam turbines at the local Westinghouse facility. In later years, Dick was famous for playing Santa Claus at many schools and children’s events. In 2015, a disastrous wildfire raced through Dick & Joyce’s beautiful retirement home in Mountain Ranch from which the couple eventually recovered.

Richard Clark was a native of Gilmanton, New Hampshire. He is survived by his son Richard A. Clark and wife Sophia, and daughter Laura Gonzales-Clark, plus grandchildren Josh and TC. His wife and his daughter Candice predeceased him. — Michael Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Al Knoth, a longtime bluegrass radio host and a bluegrass lover who brought the South San Francisco Bay Area/Monterey Bay Area bluegrass community together before the formal organization of the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society (now the Northern California Bluegrass Society) has died. He was 85 years old.

His on-air name was “Cousin Al” (or “Cuzin’ Al”) and his main program across the decades was simply “Cousin Al’s Bluegrass Show.” It first appeared in 1970 on KTAO in Los Gatos, but then most-famously moved to the legendary KFAT in Gilroy. That station was sold after the untimely death of its founder and the staff regrouped at the satellite broadcaster KHIP in Hollister. Al concluded his career in 2016 after years on the KFAT successor KPIG in Freedom (near Watsonville).

KFAT was both a radio station and a cultural phenomenon. It evoked the lure of the aging rural hippie culture that resided in the Santa Cruz Mountains (having exited San Francisco after the “Summer of Love” passed into history). The station’s laid-back ruralism appealed to the young denizens of the rapidly-developing high tech economy of Silicon Valley, offering an escape from their urban world of cubicles and coding. The alt-country, alt-rock, alt-blues, and bluegrass format was a balm to the Northern California soul. It was a unique and special broadcaster, and it made its listeners feel unique and special as well.

Al (as “Cactus Jack“) also had long-running monthly bluegrass programs on KKUP in Cupertino and KCSM in San Mateo.

Al’s purely-traditional bluegrass programming avoided most modern trends, but he did find a bit of airtime for Hawaiian tunes, his other musical passion. He was also known for playing humorous recordings and for his on-air witticisms, such as “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like bananas.”

From his earliest broadcasts in the 1970s, Al drew both existing fans and new recruits to the music. To entertain them, Al began to present live concerts in the South Bay and even a festival at Lake San Antonio in Monterey County. His program was the focus of the local bluegrass community. This organizing eventually led to the creation (by others) of the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society in 1982. Al also served as an early board member of the California Bluegrass Association.

Al was raised in a large extended Sicilian Italian family in a home next door to the Holy Cross Catholic Church in downtown San Jose. The radio in the kitchen was always on, tuned to a wide variety of musical programming. One Sunday evening show featured Hawaiian music direct from the Islands. Al and his sister Nadine Knoth fell in love with the island songs.

Al later in life took banjo lessons from Peter Grant and became a performing musician himself. He was also a popular bluegrass concert and festival emcee.

After graduation from San Jose High School, Al worked for a time as a gas station attendant before serving in the US Army Intelligence Service at Fort Benning. GA. Later, he was involved in the family occupation — water and sewer. His father Walter “Bud” Knoth and brother Dennis both worked for the San Jose Water Company. Al took a different path, going into the business of selling water pipes and sewer tanks to the trade. His western US territory was eventually expanded to include Hawaii.

On a business trip, Al stayed at the Honolulu hotel owned by the famed Hawaiian performer Don Ho, where another lesser-known native musician Ledward Kaapana and his family band also played. Al and Ledward met and became friends. They visited often when the rising star Ledward toured the mainland.

Al’s mother Josephine Knoth was a professional comedienne who performed at local clubs under the stage name Gramma Jean.

Al’s first wife and the mother of his children was Margaret. Later he was married to Kim Elking of Sidesaddle fame.

Alan Arthur Knoth is survived by his sister Nadine of San Jose and brother Gary Knoth of Morgan Hill, and by his daughter Colleen Knoth of San Jose and son (and old-time musician) Matt Knoth of San Francisco. His ex-wife Kim also survives.

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Radio Tributes: Saturday, September 9, 10:00am — County Line Bluegrass, KVMR — Nevada City, 89.5FM, www.kvmr.org (Host — Eric Rice). Monday, September 11, 6:00pm — Monday Night Bluegrass, KKUP — Cupertino, 91.5FM, www.kkup.org (Host — Mike Russell).

 

 

The Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival and the bluegrass community sadly lost two beloved members to cancer in the past week.

Doris “Cricket” Minick ran the Children’s Activities Program at the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival for over 14 years until her recent illness. She was a retired special education aide and a longtime Girl Scout leader from Mariposa. She loved the GOF and loved children. To make sure her kids had only the best, she always brought her own supplies for use at her sessions under the canopy in the field behind the audience area.

Southern California native Dana Thorin was the owner of the Music Caravan, founded in 2010, which offered a wide variety of musical instruments and other musical items at bluegrass festivals nationwide. Before the Caravan, she traveled nationally with a booth selling John Pearce Strings. She was a regular vendor for many years at the Good Old Fashioned when she lived in Scott’s Valley. Later, she moved to Bremerton, WA to be near family. Her last festival appearance in California was just before the pandemic at the Strawberry Music Festival in Grass Valley. She was a graduate of Leadership Bluegrass and was a longtime supporter of the International Bluegrass Music Association.

They will both be missed by their many bluegrass friends.

 

Frank Solivan, Sr., who changed the future course of bluegrass music when he organized onstage children’s performances at festivals, died today following a serious vehicle accident earlier this year, and more recently, a bout with pneumonia. He was 78 years old.

Frank Solivan I (Frank, Sr.) had his youthful son Frank Solivan II (just Frank) with him at one early festival held at the Amador County Fairgrounds in Plymouth, CA. Frank the elder arranged for his son and another young picker to play music together in camp, and then play a short set on stage. This performance was a huge hit, leading to the creation of an ongoing program usually called Kids On Bluegrass that Frank, Sr. led at numerous Northern California bluegrass festivals. The popular main stage act involved kids at the festival auditioning, being organized into bands, rehearsing, and then finally performing before the full audience. The instruction included on-stage performance techniques.

After launching at Plymouth, Frank brought the kids performances to the California Bluegrass Association Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival as “Kids On Bluegrass” in Grass Valley and the Northern California Bluegrass Society Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival as “Kids On Stage” in Tres Pinos, and later to other California festivals. These events continued with other leadership after Frank chose to focus his work exclusively on the Father’s Day Festival, which offered two prominent evening KOB performances at each festival.

Bluegrass musician Mary Burdette played at the FDF, saw the KOB, and was inspired to bring the kids idea to the Grey Fox Festival she helped run in New York. NCBS’ Michael Hall was also impressed with Frank’s work and set up a Leadership Bluegrass Master Class featuring Frank and Mary at the International Bluegrass Music Association World Of Bluegrass convention in Nashville. This class brought Frank’s ideas to the larger bluegrass world when class attendees began to create kids performances at festivals across the country. The IBMA convention, with Kim Fox as instigator and Frank as consultant, itself began to feature hours of high-quality kids performances on a special children’s stage.

The secondary effect of the kids shows went well beyond the popularity of the act at a particular festival. Many participants formed their own youth bands that were separately booked at festivals in addition to the regular KOB performances.

Some well-known young bluegrass stars took this path, including (from Northern California alone) Molly Tuttle, Sullivan Tuttle, Michael Tuttle, AJ Lee, Miles Quale, Teo Quale, Niko Quale, John Gooding, Josh Gooding, Jacob Gooding, Jack Kinney, Jesse Personeni, Helen Lude, Lucy Khadder, Jasper Manning, Sophia Sparks, Ida Winfree, Tessa Schwartz, Nate Schwartz, Max Schwartz, Annie Staninec, Scott Gates, Marty Varner, Issac Cornelius, and many more. The new bands included The Tuttles With AJ Lee, Crying Uncle, Jubilee, North Country Blue, Birches Bend, The Blue J’s, 45 Years Of Trouble, Salty Sally, Who’s Feeling Young Now, Pacific Ocean Bluegrass Band, OMGG, and many more.

Sharon Nichols Elliott began to work with Frank at the Plymouth festival and helped teach the kids over many years. She was also the publicist for the show. It was a once in a lifetime experience for her. Regina Bartlett also helped with KOB and also ran the KOS program at the Good Old Fashioned fest for many years. Many other volunteers worked with Frank and the kids as time passed. Frank recently retired from the KOB after three decades of teaching and organizing.

In addition to creating the KOB, Frank was a popular banjo player and emcee and an enthusiastic supporter of bluegrass music in Northern California. He helped host the famed CBA California Hospitality Suite at the IBMA convention. He also worked as a volunteer at the Strawberry Music Festival when it was held at Camp Mather near Yosemite, where he hosted one of the most popular jam camps.

He took great pride in the success of his son Frank as he first joined the US Navy Bluegrass Band Country Current and then his own Washington, DC-based band Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen. Frank, Sr. joined the internationally-touring band on some of its travels, and was always there when his son and his band were honored with IBMA Awards.

When he took time off from bluegrass, Frank, Sr. loved to fish most of the month of August in Alaskan waters. He was often joined by his fish-loving son, who is a chef as well as a bluegrass musician.

Frank was born in Fresno and lost his father at a young age. He grew up with his mother and stepfather Nick Ventura and lived throughout the Central Valley. Frank was a member of a large musical family with 10 children — he had 4 brothers and 5 sisters. His extended family played multiple musical genres and his mother taught all of the children music. Frank chose bluegrass banjo as his instrument of choice as an adult. Frank attended Galt High School and after graduation from beauty school in Hayward, worked for a time as a beautician. He then joined his brother and worked in the roofing business. He later repaired mobile homes.

Frank Solivan, Sr. is survived by his son and one sister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carl Pagter, the co-founder of the California Bluegrass Association and famous as “Member No. 1,” an old-time banjo player, and attorney, has died. He was 89 years old.

He led the old-time music band Country Ham during a decades-long part-time performance and recording career in the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC. His wife Judie Pagter was a band member, along with fiddler and US Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Country Ham evolved from Pagter’s first band, the Sprout Run String Band.

In 1973-74, he founded the California Bluegrass Association along with Jack Sadler and Jake Quesenberry. After starting with a small day festival in Fairfield, this organization grew to become the world’s largest bluegrass association and the presenter of the top West Coast traditional camping festival, the CBA Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley.

He was born to Charles & Mina Pagter in Baltimore, MD on February 13, 1934. Pagter moved to California as a youth and earned an Associate of Arts degree from Diablo Valley College in 1953; a Bachelor’s degree from San Jose State University in 1955; and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964.

He joined the then Kaiser Industries Corporation in Oakland as a law clerk while in law school and became a corporate attorney with the company after graduation. He was transferred to and from Kaiser’s Washington office, where he focused on lobbying the federal government. He eventually rose to become the company’s Director of Government Affairs, based in Washington. Upon the dissolution of Kaiser Industries in 1976, he remained with the surviving Kaiser Cement Corporation in San Ramon as General Counsel. He retired in 1998, but continued as a consultant to Kaiser on anti-trust issues.

After returning to Walnut Creek from Washington, Pagter played an active role in the CBA, serving for many years as the Board Of Directors Chair. He and others took a strict view of bluegrass & old-time musical purity, leading the organization to take a dim view of less traditional California-style bands, and temporarily welcoming very few — or sometimes no — area bands to play on the Grass Valley festival stage, causing upset among Northern California musicians.

This led to the proliferation of “Put California Back In The CBA” bumper stickers and eventually a change in the organization’s leadership and booking policies. Also during this period, the then Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society (now the Northern California Bluegrass Society) created the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival, which is devoted exclusively to the presentation of California bands.

However, during this same tumultuous period, Pagter and the CBA also undertook a major and hugely successful initiative to introduce the California bluegrass community to the International Bluegrass Music Association, then an organization principally focused on the eastern and southern US. This effort transformed bluegrass on both coasts. Using his personally donated funds, Pagter led the CBA to establish a popular week-long hospitality suite at the annual IBMA World Of Bluegrass, then held in Owensboro, KY. This was a major volunteer undertaking and was the largest and most ambitious such performance suite in the convention’s history.

Shows in the “California Suite” made West Coast bluegrass musicians and bands better-known in the bluegrass homeland, leading to an expansion of California bands touring “back east.” It also led to greater interest among major eastern bands to make the long (and potentially less profitable) trek across the country to play for new fans in California. This led to opportunities for California bands and fans to expand bluegrass participation in Northern California. It also led many CBA members and other Californians to attend the IBMA convention and to assume major roles in IBMA affairs.

Pagter played a significant role on the non-profit national bluegrass scene, serving on the board of the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro and as board member and treasurer of the then Foundation For Bluegrass Music (now the IBMA Foundation) in Nashville. His involvement with the bluegrass museum made it possible for NCBS to create the NCBS International Bluegrass Music Museum Film Festival in Redwood City, as the museum could not allow the exhibition of its films without the personal involvement of a museum official. Pagter graciously agreed to act as emcee. This event was the first showing of these films outside of the Kentucky museum.

In his later years, Pagter performed with the Mount Diablo String Band, which played on a Northern California Bluegrass Society stage at the NCBS San Francisco Bluegrass & Old Time Festival.

He also played at the first Brown Barn Bluegrass Festival (welcomed by NCBS) with his CBA co-founders Sadler & Quesenberry as The Three Amigos. These three were also honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Northern California Bluegrass Society at the first NCBS Bluegrass On Broadway Festival in Redwood City.

Throughout his long musical life, Pagter was an enthusiastic participant in old-time jams at bluegrass and old-time festivals around the country. For jams, he always sported his trademark misshapen and well-worn leather hat. The hat had been purchased at an early bluegrass festival and was almost immediately run over by a car.

In addition to releasing 17 old-time record albums, Pagter was also a published author, producing humorous books and collections of cartoons with his collaborator Dr. Alan Dundes of UC Berkeley, many relating to the ups and downs of office work and corporate life. Here is a typical example of the long and interesting titles in this series of books: “When You’re Up to Your Ass in Alligators: More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire.” Pagter took pride in the authenticity of the songs and stories he collected. Unlike some other famed folk collectors, he never cleaned up the “blue” aspects of the originals.

His first job was working on the Benica-Martinez Ferry. He used that experience as he served in the US Navy after college and before law school and later held the rank of Commander during his 16-year career in the US Naval Reserve. For an extended period of time Pagter was simultaneously a lawyer, a naval reserve officer, and a touring old-time musician. His service was doubly rewarding, as he was introduced to the banjo by a friendly fellow sailor during his Navy enlistment and learned to jam with fellow Navy personnel.

Carl Richard Pagter is survived by his second wife Judith Elaine Cox Pagter of Stanardsville, VA and by his son from a previous marriage, Corbin Pagter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Hicks, a beloved bluegrass fiddler and mandolin player who performed with Bean Creek, the Central Valley Boys, the Courthouse Ramblers, and other area bluegrass bands, died on October 9, 2022. He was 70 years old. He was a fixture on stage and in jams at Northern California bluegrass festivals for the past four decades.

Hick’s father was in the Air Force and he spent much of his youth in Europe, mainly in Germany, France, and England, with some time back on the US East Coast. He attended high school in Mannheim, Germany and later in Savannah, GA. He was a graduate of New York University, where he earned tuition funds by driving a New York City taxi cab.

He first heard bluegrass music on the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts on Armed Forces Radio. During college, he heard some Flatt & Scruggs recordings, began to play mandolin, and in 1971 was privileged to lend his instrument to Don Reno during a live Reno & Smiley concert on campus. His first festival was the 1972 Union Grove Old Time Fiddlers Convention in North Carolina. Pete & some friends quickly put together a band for the contest so they could get into the event free.

After graduation with a degree in Germanic Language & Literature in 1972, Pete spent two years teaching at the US Army Education Center in Thailand. After hours, he organized a bluegrass band with fellow teachers and army personnel. He learned to play fiddle to be in that band.

After his Army job ended, Pete spent two years in Hawaii playing in bluegrass bands and learning to play Hawaiian music.  He returned for a long vacation in Hawaii in the early 2000s to spend time playing with his old musical friends in Kailua on Oahu.

Pete arrived in Northern California in 1976. He has been an active member of the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society/Northern California Bluegrass Society and married to the former NCBS President Lora Ellen Hicks Landregan. He has performed at almost every Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival and Bluegrass On Broadway Festival as well as at other NCBS events. His bands have won Best Bluegrass Band honors and he has been named the top performer on both of his instruments in the NCBS Northern California Bluegrass Awards.

Pete’s soulful instrumental performance style was matched by his deep, intense bass singing. His good humor and smile contributed to his bands’ stage personalities. Pete was a regular at weeknight shows at Phil’s Fish Market in Moss Landing and at Sam’s BBQ in San Jose.

With the support of others in the community, Pete and his wife Lora staged Hickstival, a small Memorial Day Weekend bluegrass campout and festival at Bolado Park in Tres Pinos for a number of years.

Hicks continued his language studies, earning a master’s degree in English As A Second Language at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He put this degree to use by teaching recent immigrants from around the world at the Salinas Adult School. There was no start or end date for the weekday classes — students could join at any time and determine that they had learned sufficient English language skills at any time. The native languages of the class often exceeded a dozen or more at the same time. Hick’s students left his class ready to participate in US society and greatly appreciated Pete’s flexible teaching abilities.

Pete’s other Salinas involvement was with the California Rodeo Band at the huge annual rodeo at the local fairgrounds. The band would perform for two weeks straight for all the competitive events and ceremonies, and often late into the night. Pete even brought a small version of the rodeo band, The Trail Ride Band, to play regularly at Phil’s the rest of the year.

After he retired from teaching, Pete spent many hours working as a luthier at his home in Aromas, making and repairing instruments for his fellow acoustic musicians.

His Bean Creek bandmates Billy Pitrone & Sarah Eblen sang for him one last time in his hospital room before he died. A small memorial bluegrass gathering for Peter E. Hicks will be held at Bolado Park on Memorial Day Weekend in 2023.

 

 

 

Retired tech engineer John Lonczak, formerly of Sunnyvale, was well known to attendees and bands at Northern California festivals, concerts, and radio programs as Dancin’ John. He died at his home in Rancho Cordova after dancing for the final time at the Strawberry Music Festival this past Memorial Day Weekend. He was 69 years old.

He was deeply devoted to the idea that all kinds of live music, including bluegrass, should be accompanied by dancers. When he was unable to lure others to dance near the stage, he would dance alone, often for extended periods of time. His stamina was impressive.

At many festivals, including the NCBS Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival, John would arrange with festival management to mark off and police an official dance area so that dancers and the other less active patrons would each have plenty of space to enjoy the performance in their own way.

For one long and absolutely manic festival season, John attempted to set a new Guiness Book of World Records record for “dancing at the most festivals during a calendar year.” He did not make the record book, although though he did achieve his goal. He danced at a sufficient number of festivals but did not understand that Guiness requires submission of a detailed plan in advance and an agreement about documentation and witnesses with the record book staff. John did all the dancing brilliantly — but his after-the-fact submission was denied. He drove many thousands of miles, usually dancing at multiple festivals every weekend and often as many as two or three in a single day. He decided that he would not try a second time, but instead would return to leisurely enjoying dancing at the festivals he loved.

John also danced on KKUP Radio — a medium not often used to present the art of dance. His regular appearances on Mike Russell‘s Monday night show (where Michael Hall would emcee) with the Stoney Mountain Ramblers, Windy Hill, and other bands he loved led to an amazing fact: The only two live bluegrass music radio programs with regular on-air dance performances were The Grand Ole Opry on WSM in Nashville and Monday Night Bluegrass on KKUP in San Jose.

After leaving the Bay Area and moving to Rancho Cordova, John set up shop for his business in a warehouse. John sold high end sound systems for commercial sound reinforcement. He lived in his camping vehicle within the warehouse. He would drive in and set up camp. John enjoyed camping at the warehouse and at bluegrass festivals full time. His original Sprinter van was totaled in an accident in December 2020 after decades of service. He bought his fancy new Mercedes Sprinter to replace it

Dancin’ John was a unique talent who went his own way to enjoy bluegrass music. He had a heart as big as Texas. He was different, he was fun, he was dedicated, and above all, he was fiercely independent. His passing leaves a big hole in the Northern California bluegrass community. One could easily believe that there will never be another like him.

John Lonczak was born at Lackland AFB in San Antonio TX. He was predeceased by his parents Walter and Rose Mary Lonczak. He was the oldest of six children, all of whom survive: Alice McAuliffe (Pat), David Lonczak (Julie), Mark Lonczak (Nancy), Karen Lonczak and Mary Anne Amato.