Welcome to the homepage of the World's oldest and largest Old Fiddlers' Convention. This website was designed to provide you with all the information you need to plan your trip to this year's convention.
since 1935!

The Kids on Bluegrass Program is a California Bluegrass Association activity that provides children between the ages of 3 to 18, the opportunity to join together at festivals to learn the various aspects and techniques of becoming a band and then performing on stage in front of a live audience.

Bluegrass Jam Etiquette
by Patricia Garber

How To Be Popular On the Bluegrass Jamming Circuit

With all the bluegrass festivals coming up, it's time to tune up your jamming skills. Come to this workshop to practice your jam etiquette so you can fit into all the fabulous jamming opportunities that abound as the season unfolds. We will help you learn how to "call" and introduce your tune or song, how to "direct traffic" while playing and singing, how and when to play backup, how and when to take a break, and most importantly, how to have fun at a jam even when you don't know half the songs that anyone is playing. If you've been playing at home for awhile and know some basic chords but want to branch out into bluegrass style jamming, this workshop is for you. This workshop will help you build repertoire and gain confidence. We will provide words and charts for several popular bluegrass jam tunes.

Patti Garber, and her husband, Ted, are experienced bluegrass jammers who can make even the shyist of musicians feel at home. Bring your instruments and plan to play. If you have a favorite tune or song, we will help you lead it. Patti plays upright bass and Ted plays dobro in several regular jams as well as with Grizzly Peak, a local bluegrass band. They play at several local venues, and you can see them in July playing at the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival in Hollister. For more information on this and other local festivals (as well as information about the Grizzlies and other local bluegrass bands) check out the California Bluegrass Society at www.cbaonetheweb.org for local jams, venues, and festivals, or the Northern California Bluegrass Society at www.scbs.org

You have arrived at the official website of the Smithville Fidders’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival! We’re proud you’ve stopped by and would love to see you in person at our 39th Annual Jamboree on July 2-3, 2010. Make yourself at home here on our site, and let us know if you have any questions or suggestions. Thanks for visiting us online, and mark your calendar for the real thing! Hope to see you on Smithville’s town square this summer!

Born in Kirksville, Missouri, in 1962, Vincent was the eldest child of musicians Johnny and Carolyn Vincent. Growing up in Greentop, Missouri, her family’s house was a hub of musical activity with people coming over almost every night to play music. The Vincent Family band included family members from three generations. Vincent started singing with the group when she was three years old after her parents noticed in amazement that she spontaneously harmonized to “Happy Birthday.” By age five she was performing with her family’s re-formed band, the Sally Mountain Show, on their KTVO television show in nearby Ottumwa, Iowa, and their radio show on KIRX in Kirksville, Missouri.

During the 1970s Vincent became an accomplished musician on both fiddle and mandolin. She won the Missouri State Fiddle Contest in 1973 and 1977 and began to attract attention as a singer. After graduating from high school in 1980, she continued to tour with her family’s band, even as she attended Northeast Missouri State University, studying accounting and data processing. In 1983 she married Herb Sandker, whom she had met while playing fiddle in his dance band. When Bluegrass Unlimited’s Jon Hartley Fox reviewed Sally Mountain Show’s album Lavender Lullaby in 1984, he wrote, “I have a prediction… Rhonda Vincent the excellent lead singer and mandolinist/fiddler with the Sally Mountain Show, will go solo within the next three years and become a bluegrass ‘star’….”

Early in 1969 my wife, Marty, submitted an article to the
Indianapolis newspaper. Instead of using her story, they sent their own
reporter to verify her information and write his own piece on the subject.
Marty's was much better, I think, in terms of writing style and actual
bluegrass content; but their person did get interviews with local people
(maybe Silverspur Ragsdale & Birch) about some of the daily details. The piece is uncredited, probably because it was staff written.

They DID use our photographs, however. They were, likewise,
uncredited (and were not very well paid for!) She and I took them
at several different places over the preceding couple of years. The
lead picture of Monroe in glasses with his mandolin was taken at
Frontier Ranch, near Columbus, Ohio, around 1966. Jim and Jesse were performing at Bean Blossom in 1968. The picture with Baker off to the left and Bill, Vic & Roland singing in one mic was at Chatauqua Park, Franklin, Ohio, in 1967, and NOT at Bean Blossom in '68.
Baker and Mac were at BB '68. Some of these pictures have also appeared in Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine.

Frank Godbey

Texas native Sarah Jarosz has already accomplished so much. Rolling Stone dubbed her a "contemporary bluegrass prodigy," and Jarosz was nominated for a Grammy before she finished her freshmen year of college. Now, she is ready to come back to Austin for her first official SXSW showcase. Spinner recently got a chance to talk with Jarosz about making music and just how delicious Tex-Mex really is.

We’re excited to host the annual Wyoming Mandolin and Banjo Championships, an Old Time Fiddle Contest, and a contest for guitar pickers too. Big Horn Mountain Festival mandolin, banjo, and Old Tim Fiddle champs all earn guaranteed slots at the 2009 Walnut Valley Festival contests in Winfield, Kansas with entry fees paid by the Big Horn Mountain Festival. While the mandolin and banjo winners go to Winfield as Wyoming State Champions, we want to be clear that is not the case for the fiddle contest winner. The Wyoming Old Time Fiddle Association determines the Wyoming State Fiddle Champion at the State Fiddle Contest in Thermopolis (Wyoming’s guitar champion is determined at the Oyster Ridge Music Festival in Kemmerer). Past contest prizes have included cash, custom instrument cases donated by the Colorado Case Company for the mandolin and banjo winners, trophies, Intelitouch Tuners, and passes to next year's Big Horn Mountain Festival. We’ll work to keep enticing y’all with cool prizes this year too.

1st Annual Colorado Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival
August 24-26, 1973. Adams County Fairground
Bill Monroe • The Country Gazette • Hylo Brown • The Mclain Family • Lester Flatt • The Bluegrass Alliance • Ray & Ina Patterson • Hubert Davis • City Limits • Denver Gross • Haystack Mountain Boys • Possum Trotters • Wheeling String Band • Goldrush • Liberty

Grand Lake National Fiddle Fest Winners

Interview mit Sarah Jarosz im NPR (National Public Radio)

The Walnut Valley Festival
30 Years As Pickers Paradise
1972 - 2001

The Walnut Valley Association was formed in 1972,with its sole purpose to produce the Walnut Valley National Guitar Flat-Picking Championships Festival, also known as the Flat-Picking Championships, currently known as the "Walnut Valley Festival" or simply "Winfield" to the long time attendees.

Evolving from 2 days in 1972 to its current 4-days the 3rd weekend of September annually, it endeavors to produce "family fare" entertainment on 4 stages simultaneously, a large quality, juried arts and crafts fair, workshops, and acoustic instrument contests. What began with 10 acts and 2 contests now boasts over 40 acts and 8 contests, including one international contest, 5 national contests and 2 Walnut Valley contests.

The contests are a major part of the festival. Along with the National Flat Pick Championships and the National Finger Pick Championships, the Walnut Valley Festival hosts the International Autoharp, National Mountain Dulcimer, National Hammered Dulcimer, National Bluegrass Banjo, Walnut Valley Old Time Fiddle, and Walnut Valley Mandolin Championships.