International Womens Day
March 8th at 12:00pm – 8:00pm
Sebastopol Community Center
Sebastopol, CA
We are sold out!
if you bought tickets online, we’ll see you soon but at-the-door sales are closed.
This year’s festival is on International Women’s Day and will be anchored by the legendary Lewis and Kallick’s “Celebration of 50 years of California Bluegrass.” Also appearing, Toronto’s Lonesome Ace Stringband brings grit, skill, and abandon to Americana music, bridging old-time, bluegrass and folk traditions with a seamless mix of original material that is at once fresh and timeless. The fiddle and clawhammer banjo of John Showman and Chris Coole are the core of the band’s sound. Returning to the 2025 festival after their smoking hot set at last year’s event is Broken Compass Bluegrass, out of Grass Valley. This young band has been barnstorming the foremost local, regional, and world stages with some of the best of the new generation of bluegrass in Northern California.
The SCBFF also showcases some of the Bay Area’s top acoustic talent, including Late for the Train, Salty Sally, and Mission Blue. Late for the Train’s American folk and bluegrass music is infused with the coastal redwood forests and the heartfelt community of Northern California. Salty Sally is noted for its powerful all-women vocals supported by virtuosic instrumental skills and an inventive approach to bluegrass, folk, jazz, and country. Mission Blue delivers straight-ahead bluegrass featuring their special brand of family harmony singing and crystal clear pickin’.
And there’s a special appearance by the Manning Music Youth Bands and Manning Music Spotlight. Manning Music is one of the very best places to learn traditional music for kids and adults. Many great Bay Area artists have come out of Manning Music, and we cannot wait to see what they have in store for us this year.
This festival is brought to you by the CBA, with the help of the Sonoma County Folk Society and the Sebastopol Kiwanis Club, as well as a host of local sponsors including Loveland Violin Shop in Santa Rosa, Out West Garage, the California Coast Music Camp, and The Stanroy Music Center. Tickets are $45, with a $5 discount for members of the CBA, Socofoso, and the Kiwanis Club. Kids 12 and under are free. Get your tickets at sonomabluegrassfolk.org.
For more information:
Contact Ted Kuster, California Bluegrass Association
tedkuster@californiabluegrass.net
415-948-3663
LAURIE LEWIS & KATHY KALLICK
As Randy Pitts noted, “Before Laurie Lewis and Kathy Kallick became the highly respected and successful singers, songwriters, and bluegrass bandleaders they are today, they were founding members of the groundbreaking and influential band, the Good Ol’ Persons. Although Laurie remained in that group for only a short while before moving on to lead her own bands, she and Kathy forged a lifelong personal and professional friendship that endures to this day.”
Kathy and Laurie have been guest performers on many of each other’s albums, and they’ve released two collaborative projects: 1991’s Together, and the 2014 tribute to their mentors, Vern Williams and Ray Park, Laurie & Kathy Sing the Songs Of Vern & Ray.
Both Laurie and Kathy have won a Grammy and two International Bluegrass Music Association awards for their contributions to True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe, both have released some two dozen albums with bands and/or under their own names, and both have received Lifetime Member Awards from the California Bluegrass Association. Laurie has twice won the IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year award, and all the Kathy Kallick Band albums have charted in the Top 10 of both the National Bluegrass Survey and Folk Alliance International charts.
BROKEN COMPASS BLUEGRASS
LONESOME ACE STRINGBAND
SALTY SALLY
LATE FOR THE TRAIN
MISSION BLUE