Joy Louise performing at the 2024 Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival – photo © Joanne Ledesma
It’s no secret that California has some seriously talented and highly popular acts touring the country and world these days, and mostly they grew up at the CBA Father’s Day Festival through the youth program. However, festivals such as the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival (GOF) is where they get their wheels rolling playing on stage, all-night jams, and meeting peers.
The festival features gobs of local talent from California stalwart bands such as Water Tower, Bean Creek, Sidesaddle & Co, Dark Hollow, and Mission Blue plus future stars such as Blue Birds on a Wire, Salty Sally, Lucas Lawson, Bay Area Special, and many more. It is no coincidence that famed music instructor Jack Tuttle was seen roaming the grounds, jamming, and sitting in with many of these younger acts.
One example is Sophia Sparks, here in the process of winning the 2024 Rockygrass Mandolin contest with her Salty Sally bandmate Lucy Khadder backing her up.
Michael Hall who runs the festival, and the Northern California Bluegrass Society, always does a great job on this and many other events that NCBS has sponsored over the years. He let me wander about quizzing folks on what they were up to at the festival held at the San Benito County Historical Village on a moderately hot weekend (August 8-11).
Barbara Corff has been attending this festival for close to fifteen years, and came down from San Francisco to see her friends on stage in the band Trouble Town. She said, “What I like about this festival is getting a chance to see and hear and play with all of my bluegrass friends. Hang out and make it, you know, an easy time. I’m looking forward to seeing Trouble Town, and I just think Michael Hall has put in years of good work and it pays off because this is one of the smallest, friendliest, easiest festivals.”
Pickin’ buddy, bass player Bruce Lacey, who can be found at many Bay Area bluegrass jams, has played with several bands (West 45, One Button Suite, Southland) at the festival over the years, reminded me that the festival has been in more than one location all off of Route 25 in and around Tres Pines, California.
“The thing I like about this festival is that it’s relatively small, and because they don’t hire big-name national groups. These are almost all local and regional bands, and all the people in the bands get in free. Also, there are so many musicians here that the picking is just great. I like this location but remember when it was at a previous spot before and a previous spot before that.”
Here is a video from last year’s festival by West 45.
Vendor Jason Adams attended to promote the Jamesburg School House Benefit Bluegrass Festival.
“I started this festival last year with the help of the school board of the Jamesburg School in Carmel Valley, and it was basically designed for a fundraiser for them. The school is in a very rural community and needs help in funding and everything so I thought, you know what, I go to bluegrass festivals all the time, and I’ve always wanted to put on one, so maybe I can do that.
The school is a non-profit and they have the land and all the legal documents and everything, so I was like, if I could just call some musicians and put it together, I could probably make it happen. So I called Michael Hall and he was just the best help. He walked me through everything, and also Eric Berman of the Brookdale Bluegrass Society was great. Without their help, it wouldn’t have happened.”
Jason Winfrey of the band Red Dog Ash has been coming for ten or fifteen years shared these thoughts.
“I like the size and the localness of the festival and the way they work the bands – very egalitarian. Paul Knight always does a great sound and of course, there’s a lot of great picking everywhere.”
Between sets on the main stage, I met volunteer Karen Lonczak who is a relatively newcomer to the community. She shared some very interesting and heartfelt thoughts on how she came to be here.
“I love this festival. I was invited three years ago, to come volunteer in honor of my brother, the late Dancing John. It’s just a wonderful community and it’s so welcoming. I love it, and now I’m trying to find other festivals not too nearby my home base, Sacramento, to volunteer at.”
Dancing John who passed in 2022 is legendary in the California bluegrass world mostly for dancing by the side of the stage at every event he could get to. He logged more road hours than most of the bands he saw. I asked Karen to share a story about John and got this amazing insight.
“Well, you know, as siblings, he’s the oldest of six kids, and we had no clue of the impact he had with the bluegrass community until after he died. We were always, you know, John, oh, yeah, John dances. We didn’t know how far out he reached until his passing, which is sad.”
We all know Lara J. Day as the mother and chief enabler of her incredibly talented daughter, Jocelyn Sky, who plays harp and mandolin in the band Blue Birds on a Wire with Jasper Manning. This is Lara’s second time at the festival and she reiterated everyone’s love of the size and community at the GOF.
“I love the size. It’s not too big and not too small. It’s sweet and I love the family and community feeling, all the folks that show up to pick, and the inclusiveness and the sort of welcomeness of everybody. I enjoy the setting. I think it’s beautiful here, and this year we have epic weather. It’s just gorgeous with a nice breeze. It’s warm, but the breeze is lovely.”
Marcos Alvira dropped into a little jam I was enjoying with Jason Winfrey and Steve Ladonga. He’s been coming to GOF for close to ten years and responded in his very animated fashion.
“What I like about this festival is just the broad assortment…first of all, of California and local bands, but mostly the camaraderie out here, and that’s what holds me to this place. It’s everyone, there’s some people you only see out here at this festival, and some that you see at other places. But everyone gets together, we break bread, have drinks.
A lot of people say this is maybe the best picking festival around, but what I enjoy most is just sitting down like this and having an afternoon, you know, with a cold one. I’m eating my PB&J and just sharing stories and things about life. To me, that’s maybe the most valuable experience.”
Former CBA Board member and log-time California bluegrass enthusiast Steve Ladonga put it this way.
“I like this festival because there’s lots of great jamming. The bands get exposure… local bands. They’re not big-time names, but they’re really good, and you get to know them better. It’s just a pleasant area, a really nice facility, and just a lot of fun.”
Finally, lest we forget that AJ Lee has served on the board of this festival for many years, but of course is now out continually touring with her band Blue Summit. These smaller regional festivals are wonderful, less-expensive events where you can see the talent of tomorrow, not unlike Major League Baseball’s minor leagues.
There surely is one in your area, so get out and see these rising stars before they fly the coup. I’ll leave you with this video featuring Water Town with guests Jack Tuttle, Jocelyn Sky, and Joy Louise.
