California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 8.8 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.
San Francisco Bay Area is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun Bay estuaries in the northern part of the U.S. state of California. Although the exact boundaries of the region vary depending on the source, the Bay Area is generally accepted to include the nine counties that border the aforementioned estuaries: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, and San Francisco. Other sources may exclude parts of or even entire counties, or expand the definition to include neighboring counties that don't border the bay such as San Benito, San Joaquin, and Santa Cruz.
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music. It was named by Bill Monroe who named his band The Blue Grass Boys. The 1939–1996 band of Kentucky mandolin player and songwriter Bill Monroe, who is considered "the father of bluegrass". The Blue Grass Boys played a Mountain Music style that Bill learned in Asheville, North Carolina from bands like Wade Mainer's and other popular acts on radio station WWNC. It was further developed by musicians who played with him, including 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt. It was then evolved by other musicians who admired the high-energy instrumental and vocal music Monroe's group created, and who carried it on into new bands, some of which created subgenres of bluegrass.
The California Bluegrass Association has sponsored dozens of bluegrass festivals since its inception. The organization's main festival, held every Father's Day Weekend in June, is a four-day event at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley, California. This festival annually features a line-up of national and regional acts in the bluegrass and old-time country music field. It is preceded by a four-day music camp. The CBA also sponsors events in Bakersfield, and Sebastopol.
The city of Grass Valley is the largest city in the western region of Nevada County, California, United States. Situated at roughly 2,500 feet (760 m) elevation in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, this historic northern Gold Country city is 57 miles (92 km) by car from the state capitol in Sacramento, 64 miles (103 km) from Sacramento International Airport, 88 miles (142 km) west of Reno, and 143 miles (230 km) northeast of San Francisco. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 12,860.
Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. It covers about 142 sq mi (370 km2) near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population is around 380,000, making it the 9th-most populous city in California and the 52nd-most populous city in the nation. The Bakersfield–Delano Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Kern County, had a 2010 census population of 839,631, making it the 62nd-largest metropolitan area in the United States. The more built-up urban area that includes Bakersfield and areas immediately around the city, such as East Bakersfield, Oildale, and Rosedale, has a population of over 520,000. Bakersfield is a charter city.
Sebastopol or is a city in Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. The population was 7,379 at the 2010 U.S. Census, but its businesses also serve surrounding rural portions of Sonoma County, a region known as West County, which has a population of up to 50,000 residents.
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The Country Music Association (CMA) was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre. The objectives of the organization are to guide and enhance the development of Country Music throughout the world; to demonstrate it as a viable medium to advertisers, consumers, and media; and to provide a unity of purpose for the Country Music industry. However the CMA may be best known to most country music fans for its annual Country Music Association Awards broadcast live on network television each fall.
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments, as well as the mandolin.
Charles Samuel Bush is an American mandolinist who is considered an originator of progressive bluegrass music.
The Beijing Shougang Ducks, also known as Beijing Shougang or Beijing Ducks, are a professional basketball team based in Beijing, China, which plays in the North Division of the Chinese Basketball Association. The Shougang Corporation is the club's corporate sponsor while its mascot is a duck.
Randall Franks is an American film and television actor, author, and a bluegrass singer and musician who plays fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and mountain dulcimer. He was inducted into the Independent Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013; recognized by the International Bluegrass Music Museum in 2010 as a Bluegrass Legend; inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004; and was designated the "Appalachian Ambassador of the Fiddle".
Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. It is derived from various European and African influences, including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music, hymns, and African-American blues. First recorded in the 1920s, Appalachian musicians were a key influence on the early development of Old-time music, country music, and bluegrass, and were an important part of the American folk music revival of the 1960s. Instruments typically used to perform Appalachian music include the banjo, American fiddle, fretted dulcimer, and guitar.
The Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Association (MBOTMA) is a non-profit music organization based out of the U.S. state of Minnesota, founded in 1975. Its mission is to preserve and promote Bluegrass music and Old-Time music in and around Minnesota. The organization presents five annual festivals: Winter Bluegrass Weekend, Cabin Fever Festival, Homegrown Kickoff, Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Festival, and Harvest Jamboree.
Telluride Bluegrass Festival is an annual music festival in Telluride, Colorado hosted by Planet Bluegrass. Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of related genres.
The Festival of the Bluegrass, located in Lexington, Kentucky, is the oldest bluegrass music festival in the bluegrass region of Kentucky. The festival takes place the first full weekend of June each year. The Festival of the Bluegrass helped shape the early bluegrass festival culture.
British Bluegrass News is a newsletter first published in the 1970s by Phillip Morley under the name The British Bluegrass & Old Time Music Newsletter. It later became a small A5 magazine under the title of The British Bluegrass & Old Time Music Journal. In the 1980s, Jan Jerrold joined the staff to give a helping hand and the name was changed to The British Bluegrass News, which is its working name today.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (HSB), previously Strictly Bluegrass, is an annual free and non-commercial music festival held the first weekend of October in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Conceived and subsidized by San Francisco venture capitalist Warren Hellman, the festival has been held every year since the first event in 2001.
The Podunk Bluegrass Festival is a bluegrass festival established in 1996 and taking place in August each year in Connecticut, United States. The festival features local, regional, and national bluegrass musicians. Besides four days of music on the main stage, the festival hosts band and songwriting competitions, a kid's bluegrass academy, workshops with headlining bands, and separate picking and quiet camping areas.
A Christian music festival is a music festival held by the Christian community, in support of performers of Christian music. The festivals are characterized by more than just music; many feature motivational speakers and evangelists, and include seminars on Christian spiritual and missions topics, service, and evangelism. They are often viewed as evangelical tools, and small festivals can draw 10 times the crowd of traditional revival meetings. While the central theme of a Christian festival is Jesus Christ, the core appeal of a Christian music festival remains the artists and their music. Critics point out that the dichotomy of business and religious interests can be problematic for Christian festivals. In similar ways as the Christian music industry in general, festivals can be drawn away from their central theme and gravitate toward commercialization and mainstream acts in an attempt to draw crowds.
The European World of Bluegrass is an annual three-day event which was initially held in 1998 in the town of Lichtenvoorde, Netherlands, and is now being held annually in the town of Voorthuizen, Netherlands. This festival is held in May or June, during the “Ascension day”, Christian religious holiday. The festival normally begins on a Thursday and ends the following Saturday night.
Every year musicians from countries in Europe and around the world travel to meet and perform. During the festival about 50 bands or 200 musicians perform. Every year the EWOB attracts 500 to 600 visitors.
The Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards, established in 1979, are presented annually by the Northern Bluegrass Committee at its Huntsville, Ontario festival. This event also hosts the annual meeting of the Bluegrass Music Association of Canada (BMAC).
The Pineridge Bluegrass Folklore Society (PBFS) is a non-profit organization initiated in 1977 for the purpose of preserving and promoting bluegrass music in the Durham Region, Ontario, Canada.
The Huck Finn Jubilee Bluegrass Music Festival or simply The Huck Finn Jubilee is an annual three-day bluegrass event held in Ontario, California. It is held during the second weekend in June at the Cucamonga-Guasti Regional Park and features RV and tent camping, traditional "Americana" activities, and live bluegrass music. The festival also features activities, such as greased pole climbing, tomahawk throwing, pie eating, river rafting, and arts and crafts. The event is also the West Coast’s biggest bluegrass festival, with acts such as The String Cheese Incident, Ralph Stanley, Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers, and Rhonda Vincent. On September 30, 2016 the Greater Ontario Convention & Visitors Bureau announced that 2016 would be the last festival sponsored by it at the Cucamonga-Guasti Regional Park.
Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival is an annual music festival held in mid-July in Oak Hill, Greene County, New York. The festival features a variety of acoustic music including traditional and contemporary bluegrass, jam bands, old-time, swing and Cajun. The festival presents nationally and internationally touring bluegrass bands and showcases emerging artists from around the country. The event runs Thursday through Sunday the third weekend of July. and attendance averages about 6,000 patrons per day.
