The 13th Annual Northern California Bluegrass Awards were held in Redwood City on January 25, 2020. The popular young band A J Lee & Blue Summit (San Jose) took four of the nine categories, including Best Bluegrass Band.
The awards show, part of the weekend’s Bluegrass On Broadway Festival, is presented by the Northern California Bluegrass Society.
Other award winners included Billy Pitrone (Santa Cruz), Best Male Vocalist, and one current and one former member of the iconic High Country band — Larry Cohea (Best Banjo Player, El Cerrito) and the recently-retired Jim Mintun (Best Dobro Player, Capitola).
Suzanne Suwanda of Los Gatos won for Best Bass Player. Lee Anne Welch (Saratoga) was voted Best Fiddle Player.
A J Lee (San Jose) was named Best Female Vocalist and Best Mandolin Player, while Sullivan Tuttle (A J Lee & Blue Summit, San Jose) won Best Guitar Player.
The Redwood City Arts Commission supports the free festival, along with other agencies, businesses, and individuals in the Redwood City area.
Veterans Memorial Senior Center Theatre, 1455 Madison Avenue, Redwood City.
10:30am – Special Bluegrass Film Presentation: Life of Bill Monroe
Noon – The Open Heart Strings
1:00pm – The Wildcat Mountain Ramblers
2:00 – Bean Creek
3:00-5:00pm – Northern California Bluegrass Awards Show (with additional musical performances). Award Finalists
The Northern California Bluegrass Society’s FREE 13th Annual Bluegrass On Broadway Festival runs January 24-25, 2020 in Redwood City. Thanks to the Redwood City Arts Commission and other Redwood City agencies, businesses and individuals for their support!
Festival Fun: The Northern California Bluegrass Society’s FREE Bluegrass On Broadway Festival is this weekend, January 24 & 25, 2020, at various venues in Redwood City. Here is All You Need To Know to enjoy the 13th Annual event:
The Festival: Bluegrass On Broadway includes the Northern California Bluegrass Awards Show & Concert (Saturday) as well as other shows.
Tickets: NO tickets are needed. All shows are FREE and held in Redwood City.
Veterans Memorial Senior Center Theatre, 1455 Madison Avenue, Redwood City.
10:30am – Special Bluegrass Film Presentation: Life of Bill Monroe
Noon – The Open Heart Strings
1:00pm – The Wildcat Mountain Ramblers
2:00 – Bean Creek
3:00-5:00pm – Northern California Bluegrass Awards Show (with additional musical performances). Award Finalists.
Directions:
Bluegrass On Broadway is held at various venues in Redwood City (mid-Peninsula in the middle of the Bay Area), easily accessible from Freeways 101 and 280, via the Woodside Road exit.
The Veterans Memorial Senior Center, 1455 Madison Avenue, is about 2 miles west of downtown off of Jefferson Avenue. Turn left on St. Francis, which leads directly into the VMSC parking lot.
To reach the VMSC from I-280, exit at Farm Hill Blvd. and go east, Farm Hill becomes Jefferson Avenue. Go past the Alameda de Las Plugas, then right on St. Francis, which leads directly into the VMSC parking lot.
To reach the VMSC from Woodside Road, go north on Alameda de Las Plugas then right (east) on Jefferson Avenue. Turn right on St. Francis, which leads directly into the VMSC parking lot.
The Freewheel Brewing Company, 3736 Florence Street, is located in the Marsh Manor Shopping Center, not far from the Marsh Road exit off Highway 101 at the southern edge of Redwood City. From 101 go west a short distance, then right on Florence Street. The shopping center is on the left.
Redwood City Weather:
All festival events are INDOORS with close-in parking. High 72, Low 72.
Outdoors: FRI: Partly Cloudy, High 61, Low 50. SAT: Partly Sunny, High 62 Low 53.
Community & Fun:Remember, All Of Your Friends Will Be There!
Since the very first festival in 2008, the Redwood City Civic Cultural Commission, now newly-named the Redwood City Arts Commission has provided a base grant that enables the festival to be presented without charge to old and new bluegrass fans. Enjoy!
The 13th Annual Northern California Bluegrass Awards will be held on Saturday, January 25, 2020, 3:00-5:00pm as part of a FREE day-long concert at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center Theatre, 1455 Madison Avenue, Redwood City. The weekend Bluegrass On Broadway Festival is presented by the Northern California Bluegrass Society. Here are the finalists for Best Bluegrass Band:
AJ Lee and Blue Summit (San Jose):
Blue Summit Head To Head (Photo: Snap Jackson)
Bean Creek (Santa Cruz):
Bean Creek backstage
Goat Hill Girls (Saratoga):
The Goat Hill Girls in Los Gatos.
Sidesaddle & Co (Hollister):
Sidesaddle & Co
Snap Jackson and The Knock On Wood Players (Stockton):
Snap Jackson & The Knock On Wood Players at Bluegrass On Broadway
The Northern California Bluegrass Society has announced the band line-up for the FREE Northern California Bluegrass Awards Show & Concert this Saturday in Redwood City.
SATURDAY, January 25
10:00am — Historic Bluegrass Film
11:00am — Open Heart Strings (Ben Lomond)
Noon — Wildcat Mountain Ramblers (Los Gatos)
1:00pm — Bean Creek (Santa Cruz)
2:00pm — AJ Lee & Sully Tuttle (San Jose)
3:00-5:00pm — Northern California Bluegrass Awards Show (with additional musical performances)
The 13th annual program will be held at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center Theatre, 1455 Madison Avenue, Redwood City.
The Bluegrass On Broadway Festival, including the concert, is made possible by a base grant from the Redwood City Arts Commission.
The FREE NCBS Bluegrass On Broadway is set for Redwood City January 24-25, 2020..
The 13th Annual Northern California Bluegrass Awards Show & Concert will be held on Saturday, January 25, 2020 at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center Theatre, 1455 Madison Avenue in Redwood City. The event is presented by the Northern California Bluegrass Society.
The special historic film presentation will begin the program at 10:00am, with the concert running 11:00am-3:00pm and the awards show proper set for 3:00-5:00pm. The Redwood City Arts Commission provides principal financial support, making it possible for the day-long concert to be FREE and open to the public.
There are 6 finalists in one category due to a tie. The Northern California Bluegrass Society will present the FREE Northern California Bluegrass Awards Show on January 25, 2020 at 3:00pm at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center Theatre in Redwood City.
The Spring Brookdale Bluegrass Festival will be presented by Brookdale Bluegrass and welcomed by the Northern California Bluegrass Society. The indoor April 17-19, 2020 festival at the San Benito County Historical Park in Tres Pinos will offer onsite camping.
The FREE Bluegrass On Broadway Festival in Redwood City, made possible by a grant from the Redwood City Arts Commission, is presented by the Northern California Bluegrass Society. The 13th annual festival will be held January 24-25, 2020.
Please join us in a celebration of life in loving memory of David Gillett. Memorial to be held on Saturday, January 25 at The Bear Creek Country Club, 15685 Forest Hill Road, Boulder Creek, 2:00pm-5:00pm. Please BYOB and a dish to contribute to the potluck. As we all know, music was by far the most important part of Damdave’s life, so we welcome and encourage you all to bring an instrument to join in on the jam to honor him.
By Julie Horner with Tiffany Gillett, Jessica Gullo, Jennifer Thompson, Elicia Burton, and Eric Burman
The phone rang the morning of November 27, the day before Thanksgiving. The voice on the other end of the line was gravelly, fondly familiar, but the words were uncharacteristically hesitant and choked with emotion. It was Damdave. Children’s laughter could be heard in the background; family and friends from near and far were gathering in Hilo for the holiday. In a watery voice, Damdave said that he wasn’t going to make it. They couldn’t kill the tumor on his lung after all. Months of treatment and pain, hope, humor, and boundless heart, but nothing more could be done. He said, “They say it could be a day, or it could be a year.” His voice trailed off. The musical timbre of grandkids running amok filled the silence. I told him, “I love you so much.”
There had been quite a bit of optimism in August. Dave had been living in Hilo, Hawaii with his daughter Tiphany while undergoing treatment. Dave worked diligently over the summer to regain his health, enough so that doctors would allow him to fly home to Boulder Creek to visit his friends and to attend the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival, of which he had been a part for many years. It was a rich time spent playing music and sharing memories and laughter. The memories linger still, warm and sweet like the summer sun.
David Gillett, Boulder Creek singer-songwriter, local legend, dad, grandpa, and dearest friend, passed away surrounded by his loved ones on Wednesday, December 4th, 2019.
Daughters Tiphany Gillett, Jessica Gullo, and Jennifer Thompson and their families were by his side to read aloud well wishes sent from beloved friends. Bandmate “Mando” Mike Reynolds joined the family to bid his compadre farewell.
Damdave Gillett
Just a couple of years ago, heads close together in comfortable familiarity in the late afternoon light, Dave Gillett and I sipped our “usual” and went to town reminiscing about spirited times in old haunts around the San Lorenzo Valley. Known affectionately as “Damdave,” he was the front-man singer-songwriter and guitar player for the Boulder Creek-based Americana group, Damdave and the Left-Hand Band.
I asked how he got the name “Damdave.” He explained how he had moved to Brookdale and started a folk jam at the Brookdale Lodge. “I didn’t drink at the time,” he said, but he wound up “earning his PhD” hanging out in the bar. At one point someone asked his name. When he said, “David,” someone at the far end of the bar shouted, “Not another damn Dave!”
Damdave and the Left-Hand Band
Tuesday nights at the Brookdale Lodge were the slowest. “You had a couple of guys from the bar and we formed Damdave’s Odd-Ass Instrument Jam on Tuesday nights from ‘98-ish to 2008 or so,” Dave said. The popular Tuesday night jam became the forerunner of the Brookdale Bluegrass Festival. Eric Burman remembers coming to Dave’s jams and they decided after a time, “’Hey this would be a great place for a festival’…and it took off.” Burman recalled, “We’d all get together and come up with crazy things…like the underwater banjo contest. One of the girls asked if it was important to have a costume…when we said no, she jumped in the pool, and the only thing she had on was a tattoo. People forgot that she actually had a banjo. Damdave was definitely one of the judges that day.”
Eric Burman with Damdave Gillett
Burman also remembers one of the most fun things that the two of them would do together was take common songs and rewrite all of the words. “They were all awful,” he joked. He notes that “the biggest thing that Dave did was have that jam at the Brookdale Lodge on Tuesday nights. That’s where we formed our bands, that’s where we wrote our songs, that’s where we jammed with all the musicians from all over. Because we were working so closely with the Brookdale, that was because of Dave. He was instrumental in forming the Brookdale Bluegrass Festival and ran the ‘tweener stage at the Good Old Fashioned.”
Damdave at Don Quixote’s in Felton, CA
Dave later became a Boulder Creek townie. “It’s a nice little town. I’ve written five songs about this town, I Love These Mountains, Bear Creek Road…there are more.” He’s also written three Brookdale songs, among them, Brookdale’s Burning and Highway 9, a takeoff on the old song Highway 55 co-written with Eric Burman. “She always walks alone, neither flesh and neither bone, ooooo!! There’s some really good lyrics. Eric always made it a 20-minute long instrumental thing with audience participation.”
Damdave at the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival
For a while he was Damdave and the Hot Damn Band. The name change reflects the distinction that Dave plays left-handed. Along with Graham MacFarlane (standup bass), “Mando” Mike Reynolds (vocals, mandolin), and occasionally “Joebro” Adams (any of whom may or may not also play left-handed), the guys could entertain you with “a mix of dysfunctional bluegrass, country, blues, soul, and a healthy dose of Damdave originals.”
He’d said at the time, “I’m not bluegrass, I don’t want a bluegrass band.” His sound was Americana tending toward the bluesy. “I’ve always been a blues kind of guy.” He was raised in Ann Arbor, between Detroit and Chicago. “My voice is kind of gravelly, I grew up with Bob Seger. I like Gregg Allman…I like all kinds of music. I was thinking about this not too long ago. When I listen to people singing, when I listen to blues or Motown, the way they sing a song, the emphasis is on the words and music together. I want to develop my voice and my songs to be able to express the parts of the music I want to express…with an honesty in my voice.”
Damdave as Festival Security for the Brookdale Bluegrass Festival
“Dave was the kind of guy who could ramble, talk, talk talk, and talk, without any particular point or reason, no punchlines, just thinking out loud,” said fellow musician, Elicia Burton. “I remember playing with Damdave at Don Quixote’s where we featured him and his music. I loved playing the tune Tennessee Whiskey on my fiddle, backing him up. He was always a standard and was great help at the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival signing folks up for the ‘tweener stage. I also loved his song “Blue Day,” his gruff vocals on that, his backward guitar playing – as you know he was a lefty. And the song about growing up in Kalamazoo was a really great, real American song. I am missing him now.”
“He had a huge sweet side to him, he totally loved his family, his girls were always the apple of his eye.” – Elicia Burton
Damdave with His Graddaughters
“Daddy, Dampa, DamDave. The community lost a one-of-a-kind man. Your silly light-hearted disposition will be missed. I thank you for your artistic, musical nature that you shared with your children, grandchildren, and friends. While I myself have no musical talent inherited, I will forever sing your original song you wrote about our special town, ‘I Love These Mountains.’ Jam on Dam dad” – Jenny
David Gillett with Daughter Jenny Thompson
“Dear Naddy (Daddy). I’m so relieved you are no longer in pain and are free to jam, jam, jam until the end of time. You fought hard, stayed positive, continued to play music, and kept a sense of humor to the very end, even when you were in unimaginable pain – qualities that will never fail to amaze me. I am honored to have gone through this journey with you and grateful we were all together during your final days. I envision you surrounded by love, light, music, and hopefully the finest of tequilas! Somehow, it feels appropriate to complete the circle and send you off onto your new journey with the words you wrote on my birth announcement, ‘peaceloveandkeeponkeepin’free.’ I love you forever.” – Ninny (Tiphany)
“Rest in peace damn dad. I know you’re up there jamming, free of pain. You are loved and missed more than I have words for. I am so grateful you were surrounded by family and your BFF. I am so grateful for our time together. I’m so grateful I was able to fly out to spend these last few days with you. I will cherish the memories. Thank you for teaching me to not take life so seriously. Your humor through your suffering was admirable. Aloha, Daddy” – Jessica Gullo
David Gillett with His Daughters
“Love and hugs to our man, Damdave, The Tom Waits of Boulder Creek Bluegrass. Your wonderful family and great songs will carry your name into the future…I’m teaching them to everybody. Enjoy the ride Brother, wink and smile with that twinkle in your eyes as you make that left hand turn.” – Joe Adams
David “Damdave” Gillett
A memorial for island locals was held on Sunday, November 8 at his favorite spot, the Makuu Cliffs. A memorial for mainlanders will be held on January 25. With the help of Barry Tanner and Bruce Bellochio, a commemorative collection of Damdave’s music will be made available soon. For more information, send email to Barry: bcmusicworks@gmail.com. Online: www.facebook.com/damdave.gillett
(c) December 2019 Julie Horner for the San Lorenzo Valley Post. Used by permission.
