Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival July 17th & 18th

G2 Bluegrass Band will play at the Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival

If you love small town hospitality and charm, and bluegrass music, then you’ve got to get your tickets for the Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival on July 17th & 18th in Etna. The Festival kicks off Friday night in downtown Etna with the informal, entertaining Jammin on Main Street jam session. So if you love to play, bring your instrument and sit in as band members and locals play.

The Festival is held Saturday and Sunday in the Etna City Park under huge shade trees. This year’s line up is posted below and includes G2, from Sweden, Shades of Blue with fiddle champion Melissa Lynn Lincoln and the Donna Hughes Band, whose songs have been recorded by Alison Krauss and Union Station.

If you haven’t been to Scott Valley (not to be confused with Scotts Valley) this is a great reason to visit this small agricultural area in far Northern California. The small towns of Etna and Fort Jones serve as hubs for mind blowing outdoor recreation in the Trinity Alps, Marble Mountain and Russian Wilderness Areas. Scott Valley is also a great place for road cyclists. When you come to the Bluegrass Festival you can get a taste of the outdoors by camping, visiting swimming holes on the Scott River or driving down remote back roads. Ask the locals – they’ll tell you all about the great things to do. In the meantime, go to the Festival website to order your tickets and learn more about lodging options in the Scott Valley. Oh, and if you go, be sure to stop by the Etna Brewery for local brew and good food and an ice cream sundae at Scott Valley Drug afterward!

Saturday – July 17th, 2010
10-11: Trusting Heart
11-12: G2
12-1: Donna Hughes
1-1:30: John and Jerry
1-2 Lunch——
1:45-2:45: Guitar workshop w/ Jerry and John
2-3: Bound to Ride
3-4: Shades of Blue
4-5: California Borderline
5-6: Dinner
6-7: Susie Glaze and the Hilonesome Band
7-8: Donna Hughes
8-9: G3

Sunday – July 18th, 2010
10-11: Trusting Heart
11-12: Shades of Blue
12-1: Susie Glaze and The Hilonesome Band
1-2: Bound To Ride
2-3: California Borderline
3-4: G2
4-5: Donna Hughes

Mutton Busting at the Pleasure Park – May 3rd

The Siskiyou County Mutton Busting Series kicks off next weekend at the 62nd Annual Pleasure Park Rodeo, starting at noon on Sunday, May 3rd just outside of Etna. This the the first of the local junior events that will lead to the championship contest that will be held at the Siskiyou Golden Fair on Saturday, August 15th. The junior events start the day, with the professional rodeo starting at 1:30pm with bareback bronc riding.

The pro rodeo brings cowboys from around he West for traditional events like saddle bronc, team roping, calf roping, bull riding, steer wrestling, girls barrel racing and girls breakaway roping. This is a long tradition in the Scott Valley and rodeo weekend is big fun.  Saturday evening is jackpot team roping, starting at 6pm, and you can watch for free. Sunday morning starts with the Jobs Daughters all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at the Masonic Hall in Etna from 6-11am. The parade starts at 10:30am, giving you plenty of time to watch, before heading out the rodeo grounds for the pre-rodeo at noon with kids calf riding and mutton busting. Events for local adults are saddle cow riding and junior steer riding.

First place mutton busting winners from the Scott Valley Pleasure Park Rodeo (May 3), the Montague Junior Rodeo (May 23-24), the Scott Valley Junior Rodeo (May 25), the Sheriff’s Posse (June 27) and the Scott Valley Pleasure Park Old Timers Rodeo (July 25) will compete at the championships at the Siskiyou Golden Fair Rodeo. Saddle cow riding winners will also advance to a championship to be held at the Fair in August. After an afternoon at the rodeo grounds you’re bound to be hungry, so sit down with the locals and the cowboys at the Annaul Ham Dinner at the Grange Hall out in Greenview. Or stop by the suggested Etna options described below.

This event is a hoot! And it’s a great excuse to head out to the Scott Valley, about 30 minutes drive west of I-5 from Yreka. Scott Valley is home to a lot of agricultural land – right now the alfalfa is being irrigated and it’s just beautiful over there (great for cyclists). The little towns of Fort Jones, Etna, Callahan and Greenview don’t see a lot of traffic from visitors – you’ve got to be willing to slow down, look around and talk to the locals if you’re really going to get a sense for the place.

You’ll want to stop at the Etna Brewery for lunch, then walk up the hill to Scott Valley Drug to savor a big, fat delicious ice cream sundae. You can also check out pizza or the Western Burger rodeo special at the Etna Deli on Main Street. Bob’s Ranch House, out towards the north end of town on Highway 3, is a favorite place to get a big dinner. Have a look around town, and if you’re an outdoor lover, start asking the locals where to hike, fish, horseback ride and backpack come summer. The Scott Valley is the jump off point for more backcountry trails than you’d care to count. With the Scott and Salmon Rivers nearby you’ll want to talk about swimming holes and spring rafting; with the Russian and Marble Mountain Wildernesses ringing the Valley you’ll want to talk about trails. Stop in at the Ranger Station in Fort Jones to hear about which trails melt out the earliest and high mountain lakes with the best fishing. Take this opportunity to plan, because seriously, you’ll want to do it all, and most of us just don’t have time for that.

Now, back to the May 3rd rodeo. The rodeo grounds are just out of town on Highway 3, if you ask around you’ll find it easy enough. You’ll notice there is another rodeo coming up at the Pleasure Park on July 25th – come on back for that one too! The Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival July 18th & 19th is a two-day, family-friendly event that is a great time in the Valley. This place is so beautiful it’s real easy to fall in love. You’ll wanna come back.

4th of July music in Etna

The Etna Brewery and Pub was the scene of a fairly impromptu performance by local band Slapshoe Fly on Independence Day. Plenty of folks were in town to hear the band, a favorite from last summer. We enjoyed a nice evening at the Brewery, where you can get a slew of locally made beers from the favorite of the night – the double IPA – to my favorite, the pale Blackberry Blonde. The Brewery fills growlers, so you can take home your favorite if it happens to be one of their in-house specials that they don’t bottle. The Old Grind porter and Mossback IPA are award-winning beers and local faves. We’re talking true microbrew here – the Brewery turns out just 700 barrels of beer a year. There are a number of beers on tap that aren’t bottled for distribution, and you never know when the master brewer will share a new creation.

The return of Slapshoe Fly to the Brewery was well received by their fans. The Brewery is one of the few live music venues in the Scott Valley, where the locals love their music. If you’re in the area, check out Corrigan’s and the Callahan Emporium for live music (see details below).

Coming up later this month people come from all over northern Cali and southern Oregon for the Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival on July 18th, 19th and 20th. The Festival kicks off Friday night with Jammin’ on Main Street, when anybody with an instrument can sit down and play with the bands. Saturday and Sunday feature music all day long under the shade trees of Etna’s City Park. Visit the SV Bluegrass Festival site for a list of bands and info on purchasing tickets.

If you plan on heading over the Scott Valley for a getaway, check out the Gold Country page of VisitSiskiyou.org for area attractions, or click through to Western Siskiyou County lodging info.

Corrigan’s Bar (412 Main Street, Etna, 467.5899): Tuesday night open mic
Etna Brewery & Pub: (131 Callahan Street, Etna, 467.5277): Thurs night music
Callahan Emporium: (Main street of Callahan – can’t miss it, 467.3395) occasional music on Saturdays and Sundays, call for info.

Scott Valley music

We went out to Callahan in the Scott Valley on Wednesday to see SV resident David Waymire who builds custom guitars. David grew up in the Valley and has been playing music since his school days (not that long ago in his case). He’s been building guitars for about a year and a half under the label Old Etna Guitars, creating his own designs, like the Bolivar Baby Jumbo. He prides himself on shaping the neck specifically to the hand of his client, and he’s heard back that his guitars are very comfortable to play. He’s using some exotic woods, like rosewood and ebony on the sides and backs, with Cali woods: western red cedar and redwood, for the top panel. It takes him 2-3 weeks to build a guitar. He’s currently experimenting with organic finishes, so the process will get quicker as he gets those products dialed in.

David’s in a band called The Sundown Poachers with another local boy – Johnny Callahan, who plays one of his guitars. The band plays regularly at the Etna Brewery (530.467.5277) – home of the Old Grind porter and Etna Rootbeer – on Thursday nights during the summer and at the Callahan Emporium. The band is also playing gigs in the Mt. Shasta area, with some unplanned appearances lately at the Billy Goat Tavern.

The Scott Valley is big on music, with plenty of its citizens playing together and some reaching beyond their local setting into the greater music world. In the summer they come together to celebrate with the Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival in July. This year’s event, from July 19-20, will include Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain, The Anderson Family Band, Alhambra Valley Band and the Piney Creek Weasels. It all kicks off in downtown Etna on Friday night with the “Jammin’ on Main” event from 6-9pm where anyone who brings an instrument can play. Some of the bands join in, so you can play with musicians you’ll be watching on stage the next day. It’s a low-key, family-friendly festival set under the old oak trees of the City Park, and well worth the visit. Plus, it’s a great excuse to visit the Scott Valley, a real through back to rural living.

To learn more about visiting the Scott Valley, use our website at www.visitsiskiyou.org.