The Strawberry Music Festival will bring back its beloved wall calendar in 2024 after a 20-year hiatus. Print preparation is underway, but plans for distribution have not been announced. The calendar will mark important festival-related dates and feature beautiful pictures from the Grass-Valley-based event.
A campaign is underway to nominate the late Cousin Al Knoth for a Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association. Individuals may submit stories and other information for the effort to Al’s son Matt Knoth hazmatteo@earthlink.net
November Reminder: The Historic 30th Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival, a benefit for the Northern California Bluegrass Society, will be held August 8-11, 2024 at the San Benito County Historical Park in Tres Pinos. The first GOF was staged in 1994.
The NCBS Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival Band Committee will have the Main Stage Band Application for the 2024 festival ready to be posted on this website on DECEMBER 1, 2023. Applications will be DUE ON DECEMBER 31, 2023.
The Historic 30th festival will be held August 8-11, 2024 at the San Benito County Historical Park in Tres Pinos.
Your membership in the Northern California Bluegrass Society supports bluegrass music in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area, and in all of Northern California.
You can join or renew your NCBS Membership on this website.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes the 18th Annual Holiday Hootenanny.
The FREE event is presented by the Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company. It will be held on Friday, December 8 at 5:00pm at the DCBC, 935 Washington Street in San Carlos.
Scott Dailey books this fun bluegrass evening.
Happy Halloween from your friends in the Northern California Bluegrass Society!
Save The Date: The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes the Brookdale Bluegrass Festival presented by the Brookdale Lodge and Eric Burman to be held March 15-17, 2024.
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
Save The Dates: The Historic 30th Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival will be held August 8-11, 2024 at the San Benito County Historical Park in Tres Pinos. The gathering is a benefit for the Northern California Bluegrass Society.
