NCBS To Welcome New Los Gatos Bluegrass & Americana Festival June 22

The Northern California Bluegrass Society welcomes the new Los Gatos Bluegrass & Americana Music Festival on June 22 in Town Plaza Park in Los Gatos. The FREE event will also offer some special reserved seats. The bands will include the Goat Hill Girls and the Wildcat Mountain Ramblers with more to be announced. Info: (408) 348-7766. More details to come.

Town Plaza Park, Los Gatos.

 

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The Northern California Bluegrass Society 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.

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A Main Intersection Leading To Hollister & GOF Location Set For Improvement

The intersection of Highways 101 and 25 in southern Gilroy will be dramatically improved, taking care of a traffic snafu on the way to Hollister from the San Francisco Bay Area. The NCBS Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival is held each August in Tres Pinos, 7 miles south of Hollister on Highway 25.

The project will be done in phases over a decade with Phase One starting in approximately Fall 2024. The initial work will significantly improve the interchange’s traffic flow to and from the festival location. Later work will further expand highway capacity on both 101 and 25 and will extend Highway 25 to the west. Many sections on the route to the festival have already been upgraded.

The current two-lane bridge over 101 was considered a temporary safety measure when in was built in 1988. Its purpose was to prevent southbound left turns from 101 to 25 across northbound traffic but is now overwhelmed by current traffic volume.

IBMA Announces The 2024 Leadership Bluegrass Class — Including Helen Lude & Karen Celia Heil

The International Bluegrass Music Association has announced the 2024 Leadership Bluegrass Class, which includes Helen Lude, a frequent attendee and performer on NCBS stages since she was very young. She grew up in San Francisco and graduated from Tulane University in 2023. She now lives and works in Nashville. Karen Celia Heil of San Francisco is also in the class. She is involved with bluegrass and old time music organizing in the Bay Area.

The Northern California Bluegrass Society is a longtime organizational member of the IBMA. The 2024 class will be held at Belmont University in Nashville, March 4-6. NCBS Members are encouraged to apply this fall for the 2025 class.

The members of the class of 2024 are:

Chelsea Burns
Central Texas Bluegrass Association
Austin, TX

Amanda Cook
Mountain Fever Records
Fancy Gap, VA

Carolyn Eyerly
DC Bluegrass Union
Vienna, VA

Sara Gougeon
Pineworks Creative / Queerfest
Nashville, TN

Karen Celia Heil
California Bluegrass Association / Berkeley Old Time Music Convention
San Francisco, CA

Mike Kaiz
Madison House
Chicago, IL

Kevin Keating
Wind Gap Bluegrass Festival
Nazareth, PA

Anna Kline
International Bluegrass Music Association
Mount Sterling, KY

Jeff Koontz
Planning Stages, Inc.
Brevard, NC

Linda Leavitt
Oregon Bluegrass Association
Sisters, OR

Tashi Litch
Eastsound, WA

Helen Lude
California Bluegrass Association
San Francisco, CA

Rob McCormac
Indiana University / Liam Purcel & Cane Mill Road / Trailhead Touring & Production
Bloomington, IN

Amanda McDowell
WXCY
Quarryville, PA

Mike Mitchell
Floyd Music School / The Mike Mitchell Band
Floyd, VA

Seth Mulder
Seth Mulder & Midnight Run
Sevierville, TN

Kody Norris
The Kody Norris Show / Mountain City Fiddlers’ Convention
Mountain City, TN

Liam Purcell
Trailhead Records
Deep Gap, NC

Ariel Rosemberg
Littleton, CO

Timothy Trudeau
Syntax Creative
Franklin, TN

Amanda Webb
NoraBelle Studio
Sevierville, TN

Lillian Werbin
Elderly Instruments
Lansing, MI

Dan Whitener
Gangstagrass / Man About a Horse
Matawan, NJ

Alissa Wolf
Stillhouse Junkies
Durango, CO

Cassie Wright
Fox Crossing Stringband
Chicago, IL