When several interested bluegrass lovers near San Francisco, CA started discussions in 1974 about founding a non-profit organization to promote the music in their state, I’m sure they hoped for big things. But one doubts that they could have imagined the immense growth and reach of what became the California Bluegrass Association, or the impact it has had on west coast bluegrass fans and artists.
These discussions are said to have begun during the summer of ’74 when founder Carl Pagter approached everyone jamming at the Marin County Fairgrounds, asking if they might like to join an organization they were founding. One of their early goals was to launch and manage a large bluegrass festival, which occurred for the first time in Grass Valley in 1975, billed initially as the Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival, the same year that CBA was officially registered as a not-for-profit association in the state.
The site was the Nevada County Fairgrounds, which hosts the festival to this day. Grass Valley is about an hour northeast of Sacramento, and two and a half from San Francisco, making it a reasonable drive from these major population centers for anyone interested in a weekend away at one one the newly-popularized events that had only begun a decade earlier. Camping outdoors and listening to this crazy music that many then thought was restricted to the Appalachian regions sounded like fun to northern Californians.
For the first time out, CBA was unable to attract many big names in bluegrass from the southeast, but the growing bluegrass scene out west was able to supply enough acts to fill the bill. Reso-guitar legend Josh Graves did appear, along with seminal California bands like the Good Ol’ Persons, the Vern Williams Band, Ray Park & Herb Pedersen, High Country, The Caffrey Family, Bear Creek Boys, Long Valley Boys, New Depression String Band, A Touch Of Grass, Country Butter, and South Loomis Quickstep playing over the weekend.
This June 12-15, CBA will hold their 50th anniversary fest, now known simply as the Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, a name that stuck based on the weekend it was held. It’s a much bigger occasion now, with a herd of staff and volunteers making it all work for an audience that typically numbers in the 4,000 range.
2025 is also the 25th anniversary of their Summer Music Camp, which runs during the days leading up to the festival, with top pickers on all the bluegrass instruments coming in to offer instruction from June 8-11 for advanced beginner and intermediate players.
There is always lots of jamming, with nearly three dozen acts set to perform on multiple stages throughout the weekend, with headliners like The Travelin’ McCourys, Junior Sisk, The Gibson Brothers, and Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley flying out to appear alongside California favorites Crying Uncle, Laurie Lewis & Kathy Kallick, AJ Lee & Blue Summitt, and many others, including a Good Ol’ Persons reunion show.
Full details and ticket information can be found online. If you missed the first one, you have to be there for the 50th!
