The Golden State Country Bluegrass Festival, 1974
This was the first major bluegrass festival in northern California. The festival was an ambitious endeavor, and the poster was an adventure in itself. As the dates approached, the prodigious lineup of talent kept changing from day to day. In those pre-digital days, that meant covering names with white-out, or gluing new drawings on with rubber cement. Unlike my Carousel posters, I had plenty of time to work on this one, but last minute changes had me working into the wee hours on the night before it went to press.
The show itself was awesome, with surprise appearances by many top artists not listed on the poster. They included Emmylou Harris, Steve Martin (neither of whom were yet the stars they would become), Great American Music Band (David Grisman’s group at the time), and, most notably, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Old and In The Way. These bands — for this audience at this time — generated more interest and excitement than the first generation bluegrass stars who were the core of the advertised lineup.
In spite of all that, the production lost money. So there was not a “second annual.”