TheĀ Northern California Bluegrass SocietyĀ accepts donations to support area bluegrass and is aĀ California Not-For-ProfitĀ CorporationĀ withĀ Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)Ā status that is also known as theĀ Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society.Ā TheĀ NCBS/SCBS Tax ID No.Ā isĀ 94-2907716.
Mail-In Donations: NCBS/SCBS, PO Box 390846, Mountain View, CA 94039-0846.
Your Membership in the Northern California Bluegrass Society supports local bluegrass music in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area, and in all of Northern California. Join or renew today!
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 ā I need your help.
For the past 9 years, Iāve been recording festivals and campouts in Central California ā giving this music freely to the bluegrass community. Now, my recording truck needs repair and Iām facing serious medical costs.
Iāve set up a GoFundMe to help cover these expenses. As a thank-you for donations of $100 or more, Iāll send you a USB drive of my Complete Champion Bluegrass Collection ā 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 ā Bluegrass Archivist, Volunteer, and Friend
My name is Bruce Leonard Champion, and for most of my life, Iāve 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 Californiaās 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 ā 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 ā not a con man, but someone who wanted to preserve the music. He asked me to start recording the main stages. Since then, Iāve 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 ā the heart of this project ā 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 donāt like asking, but now I must.
What Iām 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 ā 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, Iāve 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.
Iāve 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 ā and this truck ā alive.
Donations can be made through my GoFundMe:
Look For: Please Help Bruce Champion and The Truck Recording Unit
With gratitude,
Bruce Champion
*********** CANCELLED********** The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes a Snazzy Productions concert at the El Vaquero Winery in Corralitis on Sunday, October 5 at 5:00pm featuring Max Gomez with Shannon McNally opening. Stop by and say hello at the NCBS Information Booth.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes The Jamesburg Community Schoolhouse Bluegrass Festival, set for the schoolhouse on Saturday, October 4 in Jamesburg, up in the mountains south of Carmel Valley.
This is a small, fun mountain gathering with an excellent band line-up. Stop by and say hello at the NCBS Information Booth!
Two Day Town, a local East Bay music festival that has previously been held on various dates earlier in the spring, has announced that the event will be held on Memorial Day Weekend, May 22-24, 2026. TDT will remain at Rancho Los Mochos, a Boy Scout Camp south of Livermore.
After a quarter century at the Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy, the High Sierra Music Festival will move to the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley for the 2026 event, to be held on Fourth of July Weekend. Previous venues for the 34-year-old festival include the inaugural event at Strawberry and later Bear Valley.
Other music events currently held at the Nevada County Fairgrounds include the CBA Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, Fall & Spring Strawberry Music Festivals, and the KVMR Celtic Festival.
Festival organizers will hold a Live-Streamed Discussion (High Sierra Instagram Page) and answer questions on Thursday, October 2 at 9:00am Pacific Time.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes Noam Pikelny & Friends to the Presidio Theater in Presidio National Park, San Francisco. The theater-presented concert will feature NCBS favorite Teo Quale of Alameda on mandolin.
Pikelny is widely recognized as the preeminent banjoist of his generation. Noam is a founding member of Punch Brothers. Pikelny was awarded the first annual Steve Martin Prize For Excellence In Banjo And Bluegrass and is a two-time International Bluegrass Music Association Banjo Player Of The Year. In 2019, Noam was awarded the āBest Folk Albumā Grammy for the Punch Brothersā release, “All Ashore.” Most recently, Noam has been performing with the new bluegrass band, Mighty Poplar.
Your Membership in the Northern California Bluegrass Society supports local bluegrass music in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area, and in all of Northern California. Join or renew today!
The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes The Jamesburg Community Schoolhouse Bluegrass Festival, set for the schoolhouse on Saturday, October 4 in Jamesburg, up in the mountains south of Carmel Valley. There will be lots of familiar musicians onstage for this small, fun mountain gathering!
