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September Events Of Interest To Northern California Bluegrass Fans

SEPTEMBER

16-20 —International Bluegrass Music Association World Of Bluegrass Convention, Chattanooga Convention Center, Chattanooga TN (NCBS welcomed)

17-21 — Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, various venues, Berkeley.

19-21 — Frankly Bluegrass Festival, Amador County Fairgrounds, Plymouth.

26 — Snazzy Presents Water Tower, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz. (NCBS welcomed)

Support Area Bluegrass Music With Your Donation To NCBS

The Northern California Bluegrass Society accepts donations to support area bluegrass and 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.

NCBS Online Donations

Los Gatos Invitational Jam Will Raise Money For Jambot Creator Tom Lucas On September 4

Tom Lucas created and now maintains a software program that organizes invitational bluegrass jams around the Bay Area. The “Jambot” creates opportunities for outstanding individual musicians to play together in front of audiences at taco places, coffee places, hotdog places, and adult beverage places in the South Bay, East Bay, San Francisco, Marin, Half Moon Bay, and beyond.

The inventor and community creator has not been compensated for his ongoing expenses and efforts.

On Thursday, September 4 a fundraiser will be held to give much-needed funds to Tom. The Bay Area bluegrass community will come together to support this excellent piece of bluegrass infrastructure.

7:00pm, September 4 — Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company, 101 West Main Street, Los Gatos. Free admission, reservations also available. Donations for Tom gladly accepted. Be there!

Invitational Jam to support the Jambot, September 4, 2025.

Suzy Thompson Retires As Director Of Berkeley Old Time Music Convention After 2025 Event, Revised Convention Will Continue

Here is a news announcement from the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention about changes in that long-running gathering and the retirement of festival director Suzy Thompson:

Some of you may have heard that after 23 years as Director of the BOTMC, Suzy Thompson will be stepping down after this year’s festival. She’ll still be involved with the BOTMC, but no longer responsible for every aspect of the festival as Director. Going forward, the festival is being re-organized with various Organizing Group members taking collective responsibility for various aspects of the BOTMC. We definitely will be looking for more community members to get involved! Lael Sigal, our longtime Valiant Volunteer Director, is also a professional Project Manager and she is overseeing the transition. In future, the festival will probably be shorter and smaller, but all the activities that you love (jams, concerts, dances, string band contest, workshops) will still take place.

Suzy is performing at the BOTMC this year, Weds. night with the Aux Cajunals & Blake Miller, and in a solo opening set at the Friday night concert.

Suzy says: “When the BOTMC started, and for about the first 10 years, it was fairly simple to keep track of everything, but as the festival has grown, and various aspects (venues for example) have changed, it has become a much, much more complex event to manage. Marketing, bookkeeping, paperwork, fundraising , with more days of programming, more activities and a rich and complicated schedule – it makes sense now to divide up the work rather than leaving one person to make sure that everything gets done.

“It has been a very amazing 23 –year run!! When I think of the musicians that we’ve been able to bring to Berkeley, to play alongside of, to dance to their music, and to get to know them, I am amazed. New Lost City Ramblers, with Mike Seeger making many visits. Ginny Hawker and other ballad singers including Sheila Kay Adams and Donna Ray Norton. Another personal hero of mine, Alice Gerrard, also making many visits. Old timers like Benton Flippen, Frank George, and Thomas Maupin. And so many more! I’m sure we each have our own cherished memories of past BOTMCs. You can read the whole list on berkeleyoldtimemusic dot org if you want to take a walk down memory lane.

“I am proud of our old-time festival for being one of the first to foreground Black performers of old-time music, starting in our very first year. Earl White, Jerron Paxton, Dom Flemons, Cedric Watson, Hubby Jenkins, and Piedmont Blüz (Valerie and Benedict Turner) have graced our festival. The BOTMC collaborated with Oakland Public Conservatory to create the innovative Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellowship program, which has been hugely successful. The first cohort of Fellows has completed the program and a second cohort will launch this fall.

“A heartfelt thank you to the countless people who contributed their energy, their ideas, their music to the BOTMC. I feel very blessed to have had this wonderful 23 year long adventure, and it ain’t over yet!!!”

Want to do something to honor Suzy and her 23 years of service to the community? She asks you to consider making a donation either to the Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellowship or to the BOTMC – or both!! These donations are tax-deductible.

Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellowship donations via Oakland Public Conservatory of Music

Berkeley Old Time Music Convention donations (via Ashkenaz, our fiscal sponsor): Currently, we don’t have a way to receive online donations. Instead you can send a check (very old-time!!), made payable to “Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center” with a notation on the check saying “For BOTMC” and a note enclosed that says that your donation is earmarked for the BOTMC. Send your check to: Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley 94702.