One Week To Go:

- Band applications for the August 7-9, 2009 Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival are due on December 31, 2008.

Band Application Form:  <http://scbs.org/pdf/2009BandApplication.pdf>

- Second Round Ballots for the Northern California Bluegrass Awards are also due on December 31, 2008. Final ballots will be due on January 31, 2009. The February 28 awards ceremony will be held at the Bluegrass On Broadway Festival, February 26-March 1, 2009.

I recently stumbled across some familiar faces on YouTube. Nancy Zuniga from the CBA has posted a ton of live clips from many recent campouts and festivals. Some are stage performances, others are campground jams. Here are just a few that feature some of our Northern California Bluegrass Awards nominees:

Johnny Campbell and Friends (Yoseff Tucker, Nina Weisman, Haley Pexton, John Cogdill) jam on “Southern Flavor“.

Eddie DuCommun and Diana Donnelly sing “Ruby’s Song” in the campground at Plymouth.

AJ Lee sings “Cabin on a Mountain” backed by Marty Varner, Nate Schwartz, and Max Schwartz.

The Mighty Crows play “Highway 52” at the 2008 GOF.

You can find the full list of Nancy’s videos here. Got other favorite local band videos? Leave a comment and let us know.

Second round ballots for the second annual Northern California Bluegrass Awards have been mailed to all NCBS members. If you’re a member, you should receive yours in the next few days if you haven’t already. Fill it out and mail it back to the NCBS by December 31st.

Remember that you must vote for five in each category or your votes will not be counted in that category. This second round ballot narrows our list of nominees to five finalists in each category. The “vote for five” requirement ensures that everyone’s vote is weighted the same, preventing what is sometimes called “bullet voting“. You don’t have to vote in every category - you can skip a category entirely if you don’t want to vote for five.

There will be one more round of voting after this, in which NCBS members will choose the winner from among the five finalists in each category. The awards will be presented on Feb. 28th, as part of the NCBS Bluegrass on Broadway festival in Redwood City.

The nominations for the 2009 Northern California Bluegrass Awards are in. The categories are: Band, Male Vocalist, Female Vocalist, Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, Fiddle, Dobro, and Bass. The full list of nominees follows…

Band

Abbott Family Band

Alhambra Valley Band

Barefoot Nellies

Bean Creek

Belle Monroe & Her Brewglass Boys

Blue & Lonesome

Cabin Fever

Dalton Mountain Gang

Dark Hollow

Earthquake Country

Faux Renwahs

Highway One

Homespun Rowdy

Houston Jones

Jimmy Chickenpants

Kids On Stage

Kitchen Help

Mighty Crows

Nell Robinson & Red Level

Rogue River

Rosebud Blue

Scott Gates & The Pacific Ocean Bluegrass Band

Sidesaddle & Co.

Smiley Mountain Band

Stoney Mountain Ramblers

Wild Oats ‘N’ Honey

Male Vocalist

Luke Abbott

Page Brownton

Dan Booth

Eric Burman

Larry Chung

Larry Cohea

Bob Cole aka Cactus Bob

Glenn Dauphin

Eddie DuCommun

Adam Field

David Field

Avram Frankel

Pete Hicks

Paul Jacobs

Travis Jones

John Kornhauser

Billy Pitrone

David Earl Solois

Nate Schwartz

Ted Silverman

Chris Smith

Yoseff Tucker

Marty Varner

Richard Wagner

Mike Wilhoyte

Delbert Williams

Female Vocalist

Pam Brandon aka Belle Monroe

Joni Davies

Diana Donnelly

Sarah Eblen

Kim Elking

Jessica Evans

Mary Gibbons

Penny Godlis

Angelica Grim

Jennifer Kitchen

A. J. Lee

Louise Mintun

Jeannie Poling

Hilary Perkins aka Nell Robinson

Lynn Quinones

Chris Stevenson aka Prairie Flower

Yvonne Walbroehl

Jenny Lynn Williams

Guitar

Tyson Alteri

Larry Chung

Bob Clayton

Paul Davies

Glenn Dauphin

Tom Diamant

Eddie DuCommun

David Field

Jacob Groopman

Glenn Houston

John Kael

Jim Lewin

Tom Manuel

Jackie Miller

Eric Mostar

Billy Pitrone

Adam Roscowitz

Chris Smith

Sam Sternlight

Yoseff Tucker

Marty Varner

Yvonne Walbroehl

Mike Wilhoyte

Craig Wilson

Robert Zeien

Mandolin

Kyle Abbott

Alan Bond

Buzz Brown

John Cogdill

Bob Cole aka Cactus Bob

Matt Dudman

Kim Elking

John Fuller

Scott Gates

Pete Hicks

Chojo Jacques

John Kael

Hide Kawatsure

Matt Kendall

Jeremy Lampel

A. J. Lee

Tom Manuel

Mike McKinley

Ed Neff

Ted Silverman

Mark Varner

Butch Waller

Banjo

Luke Abbott

Jim Carr

George Chandler

Larry Chung

Paul Clarke

Ken Clarkson

Larry Cohea

Tom Cooper

Penny Godlis

George Goodell

Dave Guarente

Warren Hellman

Rob Horgan

John Kael

Jordan Klein

Jason Lampel

Dave Magram

Mark McCornack

Tom Naiman

Carl Pagter

Sonia Shell

Roger Siminoff

Jonathan Schiele

Chris Stevenson aka The Prairie Flower

Frank Solivan, Sr.

Fred Sullivan

Fiddle

Kenny Blacklock

Richard Brooks

Elicia Burton

Johnny Campbell

Bob Cole aka Cactus Bob

Dennis English

Diana Greenberg

Pete Hicks

Chojo Jacques

Steve Joynes

Karl Kummerle

Bob Kolb

Paul Lee

Pat Mahoney

Chad Manning

John McFarland

Ella Naiman

Ed Neff

Samantha Olsen

Alisa Rose

Paul Shelasky

Annie Staninec

Veronica Varner

Lee Anne Welch

Dobro

Tyson Alteri

Gary Anwyl

Kathy Barwick

Ken Clarkson

Avram Frankel

Ted Garber

Pete Grant

Rick Hendricks

Rob Horgan

Bob Kolb

Jim Mintun

Charlie Wallace

Patrick Weldon

Bass

Dan Booth

Colleen Brown

Lisa Burns

Jim Davies

Tom Drohan

Sarah Eblen

Jessica Evans

David Field

Patti Garber

Penny Godlis

Dave Gooding

Megan Herring

Chris Kee

Jennifer Kitchen

Bruce Maurier

Louise Mintun

Martin Peaden

Angola Personeni

Karen Quick

Billy Rudock

Max Schwartz

Gary Smaltz

Chris Stevenson aka Prairie Flower

Suzanne Suwanda

Helen Sweetland

Larry Weissenborn