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Thread: Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

  1. #1
    Registered User mbruno's Avatar
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    Default Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

    Anyone going to this one? Always a fun time!

    https://www.cbaweb.org/events/great48
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    Lurkist dhergert's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

    Absolutely. Already booked, two connected rooms, one for us, the other for jamming. Come on by, drop in!
    -- Don

    "Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
    "It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."


    2002 Gibson F-9
    2016 MK LFSTB
    1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
    [About how I tune my mandolins]
    [Our recent arrival]

  3. #3
    Registered User Denis Kearns's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

    I actually live in Bakersfield, but not being a fan of bluegrass, have not attended the 48; however, I can recommend a few things about the city (primarily downtown area near the 48 venue):

    Front Porch Music (1711 19th St) A REAL music store and fun to visit, if for nothing more than to gaze at Artie’s extensive collection of Mosrite guitars. The acoustic stuff is in the back, past all the electric guitars, the amps, and the drums. Lots of pre-owned stuff, I once got a 1917 Gibson L-3 guitar there. Funky and staffed by real musicians.

    The Padre Hotel (18th & H Street) Built in 1928 and restored a few years ago, is a fun place to stay although maybe a little pricy, but WTH, it’s more romantic than motel 6. It also has a few bars and restaurant. The one on the first floor has good food.

    Architectural gems: Two big earthquakes in the summer of 1952 destroyed much of Bakersfield As a result, parts of the downtown and the municipal buildings are nice examples of mid century modern architecture. A notable exception is 1800 Chester, which started as a Beaux Arts style bank in 1910, got covered with stucco in 1947, was recently restored to its former glory and is now a popular restaurant, The 18hundred. Bakersfield also has a Frank Lloyd Wright house and two Neutra houses, among other examples of cool architecture.

    The Guild house (1905 18th St), a nonprofit, all volunteer restaurant in a 1909 craftsman style house on the edge of downtown, open for lunch M-F 11:30-1:30, with a rotating multi-course menu at $17.50 You’ll feel like you’re being served dinner by your mom and the food is excellent. All proceeds go to support a local child guidance clinic. So far the Guild has raised over two million dollars for the clinic.

    A few other restaurants:
    24th St. Cafe (24th St, just east of Chester), besides the usual, has a nice specials menu for breakfast
    Tina Marie’s (2000 Chester Ave.) basic American style breakfast at affordable prices.
    Cafe Smitten (909 18th St): lighter fare, breakfast & lunch served all day, sometime has Iive music in back
    Dagneys Coffee Company (20th & Eye St) coffee, associated snacks, beer on tap. Has open mike on the 1st Friday and Irish sessons on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays.
    Lots of other restaurants downtown….

    Not downtown, but hey….Bakersfield has four local breweries: Lenghtwise, Temblor, Great Change, and Dionysus. Also, if you have the time, it’s worth driving up the picturesque Kern River Canyon to visit the Kern River Brewing Company in Kernville. The folks at KRB took home two golds and two silvers, as well as the Brewery Group of the Year honor at the recent Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Often with live music on Fridays, and, since you don’t want to be driving the Kern River Canyon after having a few beers, you should book a room next door at the historic Pine Cone Inn, which is also the location of occasional house concerts.

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  5. #4
    Lurkist dhergert's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

    ... And, along those same lines, the Kern County Museum makes a very nice place to visit and walk around, we especially enjoy their outdoor Pioneer Village which has some quite extensive historical architecture restorations.
    -- Don

    "Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
    "It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."


    2002 Gibson F-9
    2016 MK LFSTB
    1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
    [About how I tune my mandolins]
    [Our recent arrival]

  6. #5
    Lurkist dhergert's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

    Gr8 48 -- Coming next week!!!
    -- Don

    "Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
    "It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."


    2002 Gibson F-9
    2016 MK LFSTB
    1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
    [About how I tune my mandolins]
    [Our recent arrival]

  7. #6
    Lurkist dhergert's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

    Quote Originally Posted by dhergert View Post
    Absolutely. Already booked, two connected rooms, one for us, the other for jamming. Come on by, drop in!
    Found out late yesterday that we have a mini-suite on 2nd floor. Kitchen/living-room half for jamming. Wahoo!
    -- Don

    "Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
    "It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."


    2002 Gibson F-9
    2016 MK LFSTB
    1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
    [About how I tune my mandolins]
    [Our recent arrival]

  8. #7
    Registered User mbruno's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

    I'm so very torn on going or not. I was planning on leaving on Thursday night but I had last minute things come up and had to stick around until noon today. Then noon became 3:30 much faster than I thought.

    Now I have the choice of playing two local gigs in San Diego and making some money - or driving 5 hours to jam with some great people and spend money. Ugh. haha.
    Information on lessons, gigs, and misc musical stuff: www.mattcbruno.com
    Weekly free Mandolin Lessons: www.mattcbruno.com/weekly-posts/
    My gear and recommendations: www.mattcbruno.com/gear-recommendations/
    Cooking fun: www.mattcbruno.com/quarantine-cookbook/


    Mando's in use
    Primary: Newson 2018
    Secondary: Gibson F9 2014
    Primary Electric: Jonathan Mann OSEMdc 5

  9. #8
    Lurkist dhergert's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

    I'm sympathetic.

    It's last day here now and folks are mostly either sleeping off jamming until 4am last night, or getting ready to go. The last event is a Sunday Morning Gospel hour, and usually it's packed.

    Jamming has been great and most of the folks we know have been here. We've been here since Wednesday afternoon and there's been excellent jamming since then. We're staying the night mostly to avoid crowded elevators and lines to check out, and to avoid Vegas traffic on the way home. Usually no one is left around to jam with on Sunday evening, but we might be lucky this year.

    We've had the mini-suite on 2nd floor this year, next to the Central California folks. We had a few jams in our suite but more often jammed nextdoor with CenCal since they were usually pretty well populated. It's worth it for us to have the mini-suite if it is available, the jams we had in the room were pretty special. In the case where there are no mini-suites we rent two adjoining rooms and open the door between them, basically providing the same availability for jams.

    I've played more mandolin this year than anything, then double bass and then banjo. I've had a first time winter-onset arthritis centraiized in my hands this year and have a trigger left thumb and a trigger right ring-finger; as such mandolin has been the least painful to play. I did play enough double bass to get a blister on one of my pizz fingers, despite low tension synthetic strings and very careful setup, so while I haven't neglected the bass, it's been used slightly less than my mandolin. I can and have still played banjo at my normal level quite a bit, but I'm having to change my picking hand posture to work around the trigger ring-finger, which is somewhat distracting. I think I've jammed more with mandolin at this festival than any other we've attended, and it's really been fun.

    The Great 48 is one of our favorite festivals because it's all indoors and comfy, so temps and weather are never an issue. It did rain here on Thursday so it was nice to be inside.

    Our next festival event is the Nu-Blu Ensenada cruise in March. Looking forward to it!
    -- Don

    "Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
    "It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."


    2002 Gibson F-9
    2016 MK LFSTB
    1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
    [About how I tune my mandolins]
    [Our recent arrival]

  10. #9
    Registered User mbruno's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great 48 in Bakersfield, CA

    Well - I ended up making the trip and it was well worth it as always. Great to see and jam with a bunch of folks that I rarely see outside of that festival - including you buddy!

    Looking forward to next year already
    Information on lessons, gigs, and misc musical stuff: www.mattcbruno.com
    Weekly free Mandolin Lessons: www.mattcbruno.com/weekly-posts/
    My gear and recommendations: www.mattcbruno.com/gear-recommendations/
    Cooking fun: www.mattcbruno.com/quarantine-cookbook/


    Mando's in use
    Primary: Newson 2018
    Secondary: Gibson F9 2014
    Primary Electric: Jonathan Mann OSEMdc 5

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