Welcome to the CalAmericana Association, the arts and education nonprofit for
California's Roots Americana community.
Mission: The mission of the CalAmericana Association
is to advance California's legacy and leadership in "roots" Americana music through publicity, events, festivals and community. Scope: "Roots Americana" includes twanger-songwriters, jug bands,
old-time music, bluegrass, western swing, country & western, alt-country, rockabilly, traditional roots and new roots music. History:
Music makes friends wherever it goes. Musical instruments -- things like iPods only a little bigger and where people make music with them themselves -- have been traveling the globe since the first wandering minstrels set out to sing the news of one town to another.
Music that established the patterns for most of the music we hear today first came to California in 1579 when the second European to reach the California coast, Sir Francis Drake, brought a viol
consort on his trip around the world. California music really took hold in 1849, when the quest for gold brought the first great wave of migrants and their instruments to California. These
instruments traveled overland by horse and wagon, around South America by ship, and up the Sacramento, San Joaquin, Yuba and other rivers and valleys to the gold fields.
By 1850, the Republic of
California became the 31st State and the migration continued, gold or not. In the 1860s, they came to escape the Civil War. In the 1870s, they came to farm the lush valleys. The 1880s
migration was sparked by the Transcontinental railroad which opened in 1879. "Go West, young man" was more than a saying, it was a way of life.San Francisco was the busiest port in the
West during the late 1800s when California started it's economic climb. San Francisco led the West in shipping, commerce and music, as well as in saloons, dance halls, gambling establishments, brothels
and corruption. It was called "The Barbary Coast" after the pirates who roamed the Mediterranean in the 1700s.
The 1906 earthquake brought twilight to the Barbary Coast, the City by the Bay
rebuilt, and by 1915 and the San Francisco's World's Fair ushered in the West Coast's Jazz Age.
By 1920, a budding film industry had taken root in Southern California. The 1930s, brought the
Dust Bowl migration that (thankfully) established "Okie music" as a part of California's popular culture. Hollywood, rather than cattle ranching, created the cowboy as we know him today.
Clean-cut Tom Mix personified the cowboy invented in the 1910s and perfected in the 1920s. The introduction of sound into motion pictures led to singing cowboys like Gene Autrey,
Roy Rogers, Michael Martin Murphy and dozens of other celluloid wranglers from Californ-i-a. John Wayne, a Californian since he was five years old, was the first singing cowboy. He
played Singin' Sandy Saunders in 1933's Riders of Destiny. The 1940's brought World War II and most all who shipped out to the Pacific either from or returned to California.
So many stayed that by the 1950s California became the most populous state in the Union. Meanwhile, Californians like Wynn Stewart and musician/radio host Speedy West, and California's
Capitol Records were in full rebellion against the Nashville sound that was mired in string-driven blandness even back then. They were the core of the Bakersfield sound that spawned Buck Owens
and Merle Haggard. By the mid-'50s, California was publishing most of the world's roots Americana music, and by the 1960s a new breed of bands like the Byrds and Gram Parsons' Flying
Burrito Brothers introduced the "California Sound" a country/folk/rock amalgamation that would inspire bands all over the world, and be taken to the limit by California's Eagles. In 1975, a
group in recovery from the post-hippie fallout would record the biggest selling bluegrass record of all time. Jerry Garcia, Peter Rowan, David Grisman and Vassar Clements
called themselves Old and in the Way. There are many, many more. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, a California band that recorded the highly influential "Will the Circle Be
Unbroken" compilations. Country rock pioneers Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, who left Michigan for sunny California. Rose Maddox
who, by singing with her brothers in the 1940s, opened doors for many women in country. Even western swing pioneer Bob Wills
moved to the Golden State where he made his leap from regional to national fame. California today has more Americana festivals
than anyplace in the world, and over 1000 active Americana performers, bands and musical entities that defy every classification except "Americana." Get to know CalAmericana starting with currently
performing bands that includes Dwight
Yoakum, Dave Alvin, Big Sandy, Deke Dickerson, Chris Hillman, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, the Hacienda Brothers and more great bands than we have room to mention.
The CalAmericana Association: It's home base for what's twangin' in California.
Click here to join the CalAmericana Association or volunteer. CalAmericana Association
P.O. Box 460303
San Francisco, CA 94146-0303
415-550-1233
Email CalAmericana at [this site's name] |
