SF Bay Area Folk Music History
SF Bay Area Folk Music History
revised 9/25/26
San Francisco Folk Music Club (1948-present)
San Francisco Free Folk Festival (1977-present)
El Cerrito Free Folk Festival (2009-present)
Bay Area Country Dance Society (BACDS) (1981-present)
North Bay Country Dance Society (NBCDS) (1993-present)
The Freight (formerly the Freight & Salvage) 1968-present
Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center (1973-present)
Festival of the Sea/Sea Music Festival (??-present) - held at Hyde Street Pier/SF Maritime National Historical Park (National Park Service). The 1979 festival was recorded and issued as a Folkways LP; the only liner notes in my copy of the LP are song lyrics, with no additional information (beyond the info on the jacket) about the festival or the performers.
Bluegrass and Old Time
Bluegrass & old-time music in the San Francisco Bay Area: 1959-2001 - by Peter Thompson
Berkeley Old Time Music Convention website and YouTube channel
Northern California Bluegrass Society (originally the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society)
No Longer Active:
Julie's Place (1980-1994) - see Julie Bidou. House concert series. Originally held at Julie's house in north Berkeley, later organized mostly by Barry Smiler and held at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Fellowship Hall (Cedar & Bonita) and occasional larger concerts at other venues.
Castle Folk Club (1983-2000) - British-style folk club organized by Dick Holdstock & Allan MacLeod, at the Edinburgh Castle Pub 950 Geary SF and the Connecticut Yankee on Potrero Hill.
Plowshares Coffee House (1977-1998) - concert series produced by the San Francisco Folk Music Center at Fort Mason (SF)
Susan Wageman's website - stories, research background, etc
Plowshares Coffee House: People, Music & Community - masters thesis by Susan Wageman (2017)
Berkeley Folk Festival (1958-1970). organized by Barry Olivier. The archive at Northwestern Unversity includes information and an extensive collection of photographs & ephemera. Also see Michael Kramer's website about the Berkeley Folk Music Festival Project and TV news report video clips from 1968, 1968, and 1969. Appearing in the first clip are Mitch Greenhill & unknown flute player, Tony Marcus & Jeff Peterson, Sam Hinton & Allan MacLeod. Appearing in the third clip are Charley Marshall, Country Joe and the Fish, Charles Seeger, Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry.
Berkeley Free Folk Festival - held for a few years at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (Cedar St and Bonita St, Berkeley)
San Francisco State Folk Festival. held for several years in the 1960's. There are some photos in the Northwestern University Berkeley Folk Festival collection.
Western Regional Folklife Festival (1974-1984) - free event, funded & organized by the National Park Service and curated by Karana Hattersley. Mostly held at Fort Cronkhite in the Marin Headlands; some years on the Great Meadow in the upper section of Fort Mason. The printed programs contained a wealth of information (wish I had kept them...).
In Harmony's Way - acapella chorus songs. Read the About info on this page for links to the original website with liner notes, YouTube playlist for the CD, etc. The "extras" YouTube playlist has videos of 3 of the Freight concerts and several out-takes from the original recording.
Oak Ash & Thorn - acapella songs
Faith Petric (1915-2013) - singer, activist, matron of the SF Folk Music Club
Singing for Justice (2024) - documentary by Estelle Freedman and Christie Herring. See the Events page for public showings. The film was shown on PBS in March 2025 and could someday be available again.
Oral History (audio interviews; 10 parts) - interviewed by Estelle Freedman
Ed Silberman (1953-2025) - singer, harmonica player, composer of songs and parodies, instigator
SILBERSONG - The Songs and Parodies of Ed Silberman, compiled by Casey Casebeer
Julie Bidou (1918-2018) - singer; house concert organizer
Lani Herrmann (1936-2021) - singer, musician, archivist, editor of revised edition (1990) of Sam Henry's Songs of the People
Kate Wolf (1942-1986) - singer/songwriter. Bandcamp
Barry Olivier (1935-2023) - co-founder of the Berkeley Folk Festival (see above). wikipedia entry
Dick Holdstock (1934-) - English singer, specializing in traditional British & sea songs; performed as a duo with Allan Macleod; author (Again With One Voice, British Songs of Political Reform, 1768 to 1868)
Allan MacLeod (1942-2026) - Scottish singer, specializing in traditional British & sea songs; performed as a duo with Dick Holdstock
Dick & Allan were also part of the In Harmony's Way project and the organizers of the Castle Folk Club (see above).
Dicks's Website
YouTube (a few albums)
Again with One Voice presentation at Bird & Beckett Jan 2024 (Dick with Patience Young)
Kirston Koths (1948-2024) - contra dance caller & organizer
Chuck Ward (?-2021) - dance musician
Brad Foster - dance caller & organizer
Sharon Green - English dance caller, choreographer & organizer
Erik Hoffman - contra/square/community dance caller/musician/organizer.