The NCBS San Francisco Bluegrass & Old Time Festival will be held February 10-19, 2012 at venues throughout San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Marin Counties. The festival has been organized by the NCBS SFBOT Committee since 2000. Admission to the many shows ranges from FREE to modest to meaningful. Enjoy!

Complete SFBOT Festival Schedule

Nell Robinson & Jim Nunally

Larry Nager’s documentary film “Bill Monroe — The Father Of Bluegrass Music,” which was re-edited and re-released for the 2011 centennial celebration of Monroe’s birth, will be screened at the 5th Annual NCBS International Bluegrass Music Museum Film Festival on January 29 in Redwood City.

The documentary features interviews with Monroe and his musical friends, along with historical footage of his legendary career and of informal jam sessions at his Tennessee home. The film was orginally released in 1993, three years before Monroe’s death.

Larry Nager is a Nashville-based filmmaker & musician and a roots music author,  journalist & historian.

The film festival is part of the FREE Bluegrass On Broadway Festival, presented January 27-29 in Redwood City by the Northern California Bluegrass Society.

Complete Festival Schedule

Greg Cahill

Longtime bandleader, banjo player and former IBMA board chair Greg Cahill will bring his band The Special Consensus to a Redwood Bluegrass Associates concert in Mountain View this Saturday, January 21 at 8:00pm at the First Presbyterian Church. Snap Jackson & The Knock On Wood Players will open.

An 5:00pm open jam will precede the show.  All RBA concerts since 1995 have been sponsored by the Northern California Bluegrass Society.

Mountain View High School Senior Frank Grabowski’s “Bluegrass — A Documentary” will be screened at the 2012 NCBS International Bluegrass Music Museum Film Festival on January 29, Noon-5:00pm at the Redwood City Main Library, 1044 Middlefield Road in Redwood City. This will be the first student film shown at the five-year-old festival.

“There are still many concerts and camp outs for Bluegrass, but a vast majority of Bluegrass players play in small groups known as ‘jams’ during which 3-10 people get together and play songs,” says Grabowski.

The film explores the culture of informal bluegrass music in the local area and beyond, and contains footage of and interviews with many of Northern California’s best-known musicians.

Grabowski has been making video media projects for fun since the 6th grade. This project was for a class at Freestyle Academy, which is affiliated with Mountain View and Los Altos High Schools. He plans to major in media studies in college next year, with a focus on claymation stop motion animation. He plays piano and guitar, and has attended area bluegrass festivals with his family.

The film festival is part of the FREE January 27-29 NCBS Bluegrass On Broadway Festival, produced with the support of the Redwood City Civic Cultural Commission and other Redwood City agencies, organizations and businesses.

Complete Weekend Festival Schedule

The 5th Annual Northern California Bluegrass Awards will be held on Saturday, January 28, 2012, as part of the Northern California Bluegrass Society’s Bluegrass On Broadway Festival in Redwood City. All BOB events are FREE and open to the public. Here is the schedule:

Northern California Bluegrass Awards Show And Concert

Tapestry Church Main Hall, 1305 Middlefield Road, Redwood City

10:00am — The Abbott Brothers

11:00 — Windy Hill

Noon — Snap Jackson & The Knock On Wood Players

1:00pm – Bean Creek

2:00 — Dark Hollow

3:00-5:00 — Northern California Bluegrass Awards, (with special guest performers)

5:00-ish to whenever — Award Winners Jam (ALL jammers are welcome), Little India, 917 Main Street.

Complete BOB Festival Weekend Schedule

“Fanning The Fire — Bluegrass For A New Generation,” a documentary about the launch of a young Mexican-American’s bluegrass music career in Texas, will be on the program for the FREE 5th Annual NCBS International Bluegrass Music Museum Film Festival in Redwood City on January 29.

Filmmaker Alan Tompkins

The festival will be held at the Redwood City Main Library, 1044 Middlefield Road, Noon-5:00pm, as part of the January 27-29 NCBS Bluegrass On Broadway Festival.

In the film, Lucas White of Corsicana, Texas talks about learning to play bluegrass music and meets and eventually performs with his favorite bluegrass musicians at the Bloomin’ Bluegrass Festival near his hometown.

Filming Lucas White

The film by Dallas attorney & CPA and bluegrass musician Alan Tompkins is a project of the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation of Farmer’s Branch, TX. and is Tompkins’ first cinematic project.

The FREE BOB festival receives principal financial support from the Redwood City Civic Cultural Commission, Redwood City Public Library, One World Montessori School, Tapestry Church and Wickersham & Murphy.   Complete Festival Schedule

Four longtime current leaders of Bay Area non-profit music organizations will be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards on January 28, 2012, as part of the 5th Annual Northern California Bluegrass Awards. They are:

Steve Baker, Berkeley Society For The Preservation of Traditional Music dba The Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, Berkeley.

Richard Brooks, Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers Association, Palo Alto.

Bruce Edmundson, Redwood Bluegrass Associates, Mountain View.

Mike McKinley, Northern California Bluegrass Society/Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society, Santa Cruz.

The FREE day-long awards concert will be held in the Main Hall of the Tapestry Church, 1305 Middlefield Road, Redwood City. The Awards program will take place from 3:00-5:00pm. The program will be part of the weekend’s Bluegrass On Broadway Festival presented by the Northern California Bluegrass Society.

Complete Festival Schedule

Principal financial support for Bluegrass On Broadway comes from the Redwood City Civic Cultural Commission, Redwood City Public Library, One World Montessori School, Tapistry Church, and Wickersham & Murphy.

San Jose filmmaker and bluegrass musician Chip Curry’s documentary about Evo Bluestein’s elementary school folk dance week program will be screened on Sunday, January 29 as part of the NCBS International Bluegrass Music Museum Film Festival. The films will be shown Noon-5:00pm at the Redwood City Main Library, 1044 Middlefield Road in Redwood City.

The filmmaker will speak to the audience and answer questions about the project.

The Bluestein Family

“American Folk Dancing — A Week With Evo Bluestein” examines the value of roots music and dance instruction for students in an era when arts education has been eliminated in many California schools. The documentary was shot at Buena Vista Elementary School in Walnut Creek. Bluestein is a Fresno-based musician and educator who has appeared at numerous California bluegrass and folk festivals over the past three decades. He began his music career as a young member of Fresno’s famed Bluestein Family.

Producer & director Curry of Chrysalis Films has been making films for over 25 years. He has been experimenting with the art of moving imagery since his very first 16 mm project.  He believes that story is the foundation upon which all great visual media is based. “My greatest joy is building a story from the drama, and color I see in the fleeting moments of daily life and assembling it as an indelible piece of moving art.” This is his first project selected for showing at the festival.

Filmmaker Chip Curry

Curry’s musical career started in Tucson, Arizona in the 1970s when, with his five-string banjo, he led the Summerdog Bluegrass, Mariachi, and Swing Ensemble to a ten-year stint as the Southwest’s premiere string band. He currently plays several hundred shows a year in the Bay Area for children, seniors, and general audiences.

The NCBS IBMM Film Festival is part of the FREE 5th Annual NCBS Bluegrass On Broadway Festival, set for January 27-29, 2012 in Redwood City.

Complete Festival Schedule

Principal financial support comes from the Redwood City Civic Cultural Commission, Redwood City Public Library, One World Montessori School, Tapistry Church, and Wickersham & Murphy.

Evo Bluestein leads a student dance.