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: What is roots Americana music? Whether amplified or acoustic, roots Americana is
essentially "rooted" in the folk music of the British Isles half a millennium ago, give or take a century or two. It traveled to North America with settlers long before there was a Canada or a Unites
States. Roots Americana music is neither a Texas, a Nashville nor an American phenomenon. But even if we borrowed it and haven't quite gotten around to giving it back, it forms a major branch of
all the great music has given back to the world.Today roots Americana can be heard in the music of twanger-songwriters, jug bands, old-time/string/bluegrass, western swing, alt-country, rockabilly, and
many points in between. There a uniquely California strains of it too found in music of Golden State residents like Buck Owens, Gram Parsons, the Byrds, Merle Haggard, Neil Young and the
Grateful Dead. History:
Music makes friends wherever it goes and musical instruments, starting with the first wandering minstrels who sang the news from town to town, were the only portable music for centuries before iPods.
Sir Francis Drake, played the first European-style concerts in California. His ship, the Golden Hind, traveled with a viol consort on the trip around the world that brought him to California in
1579.
California music, and California itself, 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 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 the new
Transcontinental railroad brought the next big wave to the 31st State. "Go West, young man" was more than a saying, for many it was a way of life.
After the Gold Rush, San Francisco, the busiest
port in the West, lead California in shipping, commerce, saloons, dance halls, gambling establishments, brothels, corruption and music. It was named "The Barbary Coast" after the pirate-infested coast
of North Africa in the 1700s.
The 1906 earthquake brought twilight to the Barbary Coast, the City by the Bay was 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 established "Okie music" as a part of California's popular
culture. Clean-cut Tom Mix
personified the cowboy invented by Hollywood 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 California. 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 brought another wave of westward bound Americans as California became the staging state
for the war in the Pacific, and wartime jobs brought many from south of the Mason-Dixon line. So many stayed that by the 1950s California became the most populous state in the Union. "New"
Californians like Wynn Stewart, musician/radio host Speedy West, and fresh-thinking companies like California's Capitol Records were in full rebellion against the Nashville sound that
was mired in string-driven blandness even back then. Rural transplants like Stewart formed the base 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 mix that would inspire bands all over the world, and would eventually 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, while singing with her brothers in the 1940s, opened many doors for 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 include Dwight
Yoakum, Dave Alvin, Big Sandy, Deke Dickerson, Chris Hillman, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, and more musical talent than one state deserves. California has reason to be proud of its
roots Americana heritage, that the CalAmericana Association is working to keep thriving and strong. 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] |
