a California Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Corporation – EIN 99-3474773
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a California Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Corporation – EIN 99-3474773
The Sonoma County Folk Society (SoCoFoSo) is an all volunteer organization and, as such, all activities are the responsibility of its members. We are a 501-C-3 (non-profit) educational and charitable organization.
We serve as a resource for and provider of folk music events in our region, we offer venues and invitations for singing and jamming, and we proudly support community programs that offer live music opportunities to both seniors and adults. See “OUR MISSION” below.
All members are invited to attend Board Meetings and to submit any ideas they may have to further the sharing of folk music in Sonoma County. There is also ample opportunity for volunteering, both at music events and behind-the-scenes. We invite you to donate your time and skills to the local acoustic music scene, along with other SoCoFoSo members.
Walker Creek Ranch is committed to meeting the specific needs of organized groups by providing personalized services, facilities and high quality programming in a clean, safe and comfortable environment.
The Marin County Outdoor School at Walker Creek Ranch is dedicated to helping elementary schools satisfy their educational goals through quality instruction within a special learning environment that inspires and motivates students to achieve an appreciation of the natural world. Using the principals of thematic instruction, the Outdoor School program enhances a student’s critical thinking, processing, and socialization skills.
We are a family owned business living and breathing in Sebastopol California. People’s Music was established in 1973. We carry tons of local, new & used unique instruments from all over the world, as well as accessories. We offer repair services for all musical instruments.
Founded in 1994, Straus Family Creamery is a mission-driven, family-owned-and-operated business dedicated to making premium organic dairy products, with minimal processing. The Straus Dairy Farm and Creamery, located in the small town of Marshall on the Northern California Coast, was the first certified organic dairy farm west of the Mississippi River and the first 100% certified organic creamery in the United States.
In addition to the Straus Dairy Farm, Straus Family Creamery buys certified organic, Non-GMO Project Verified milk from 11 other organic family farms in Northern California’s Marin and Sonoma Counties. The combination of rich soil, one of the nation’s most diverse grassland systems, and a mild coastal climate create the ideal setting for organic dairy farming. Land stewardship and sustainable farming are deeply rooted principles in certified organic farming practices.
The Northern California Bluegrass Society is a non-profit organization that exists to promote bluegrass music in northern California. The NCBS is member supported and run by volunteers. Its operations are overseen by the board of directors, also volunteers, elected by the membership.
The NCBS was founded in 1982 as the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society. Over the years its scope grew to cover more than just the Santa Cruz area, and in 1999 the membership voted to change its name to the Northern California Bluegrass Society.
As we are a non-profit organization, donations are both tax-deductible and greatly appreciated!
Our camp director’s band Rosie and the Railroaders have two passions: fast trains and good music. We are dedicated to playing first class traditional music while rekindling an interest in trains – one of the best forms of transportation ever invented. From the many hundreds of American songs about trains, we ’ve picked our favorites and perform them – bluegrass, country,or oldtime style. Each show includes a lively mix of songs, from classics such as “Wabash Cannonball and “Casey Jones” to more recent material like “Daddy, What ’s a Train?” or “Gotta Get Rid of the Cars ”. With an engaging blend of instruments including banjo, guitar, harmonica, fiddle, accordion, and stand-up bass, we – the singing train enthusiasts of the West – are prepared to entertain any audience.
The IBMA Foundation was created by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2007 with a bequest from the Richard Barnhart estate. Mr. Barnhart was a musician from northern Virginia who loved bluegrass and wanted to support educational programs for children. Since the beginning, our goal has been to support bluegrass-music-related educational, literary, artistic and historic preservation activities.
In our early years we produced Discover Bluegrass, an educational video that has been used in thousands of classrooms and libraries around the world. We have hosted dozens of teacher workshops and artist trainings. We created a bluegrass lesson plan competition and provided a network for leaders of after-school bluegrass programs.
My shop specializes in high quality new and used string basses in most price ranges. Since starting out my career as a guitar repairman in Sacramento in 1975, I have managed acoustic instrument stores, worked for an import musical instrument wholesaler, built Santa Cruz Guitar Company instruments, worked as a music dealer service agent, and have owned and operated my own retail store since 1990. I also play string bass and guitar semi-professionally.
My guiding philosophy is to stock instruments that I would have at home to play, and to treat each customer with gentle respect. A return to doublebass playing in 1998 prompted a search for local San Francisco Bay Area shops that specialized in double basses. The retirement and geographic relocations of four major doublebass service providers in the mid-1990s through 2005 had left a vacuum of resources and qualified luthiers for San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California bass players. To at least begin to start filling in that gap, I acquired my first new bass for the small guitar shop space in January 1999 during a tour of the Winter NAMM show.
Fiddle contest first appeared in the U.S. in November of 1736. The first recorded fiddle contest was held as part of a St. Andrew’s Day celebration. The best fiddler was to win an Italian made Cremona fiddle. The next year only the fiddlers to sign up were allowed to play. After they played their tune they were asked to play another tune for entertainment. Sometimes fiddle contests were simply groups of local fiddlers getting together to determine who was the “best” fiddler.
At times prizes were awarded but many fiddlers saw that as less important than the prestige attached to winning the contest. The fiddlers and the audience took these contests seriously, it was a matter of great local pride for a county to have a champion fiddler.