by Christine | May 6, 2019 | Welcome Column
First Mondays are reserved for a message from our Association president. Well, not today…Darby and husband Bruno are in Paris celebrating their 50th anniversary.Please join our cbaweb team, all our CBA staff and, of course, our membership, in wishing these...
by Christine | Jul 9, 2010 | Welcome Column
I got to the fathers day festival on the Friday before the festival started. My wife dumped me off and took off with the car, and I was stuck there precisely where I wanted to be, fifty feet from the restroom with the shower, right next to where Lucy (My guitar hero)...
by Christine | Sep 17, 2009 | Welcome Column
It was about seven years ago that the process for selecting FDF bands began to see substantial changes. The leadership of the Association sought to find a system of creating line-ups that would yield the best shows possible for the least amount of money. It sought a...
by Christine | Sep 18, 2009 | Welcome Column
Is the family band a rich source of talent for the bluegrass music world, a way to keep families together in an increasingly fractured society, an exploitation of child labor, or a meal ticket used by cynical parents manipulating their children? I suspect it’s all of...
by Christine | Feb 29, 2020 | Welcome Column
(Editor’s Note: Once every couple years I post as my Welcome Column on the web page of the California Bluegrass Association the story of my wife’s bird. I keep coming back to the narrative because it’s got a solid moral that’s worth throwing...
by Christine | Dec 16, 2020 | Welcome Column
Perfection is such an alluring ideal. It’s something we should strive for, we are told. The problem with perfection is, it’s subjective. It’s a made up condition, that can never be attained. The pursuit of perfection is, then, a guarantee of failure. I prefer to say I...
by Christine | Sep 18, 2005 | Welcome Column
Once, when my youngest son Peter was just a little guy, he was playing ball inside the house and broke a window. I’d been out in my shop and didn’t hear the crash and Peter, not wanting to deal with the situation, just skipped over to a friend’s house to play. When I...
by Christine | Dec 15, 2016 | Welcome Column
Long about 1983, and still somewhat newlyweds, we were just doing the regular things young people do. Perhaps an unusual pairing (a city boy and a country girl), we were looking for journeys to start together. That summer, Lynn came to me with...
by Christine | Oct 13, 2009 | Welcome Column
Tomorrow, I’m going to a wedding. No, it’s not my wedding…I already did that once…it’s the wedding of one of our surrogate daughters. Sarah lived with us for approximately three years before moving out on her own. She was an interesting kid at times, but then I...
by Christine | Jan 11, 2011 | Welcome Column
What I’m doing these days is working on a transition from partially retired, (working two days per week) to completely retired (giving the whole damned thing up). It’s been hard. I’ve read, and I’m inclined to believe, that some people, folks with not the greatest...
