Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan have been playing their unique blend of guitar and harmonica blues, rags, and good time music to widely diverse audiences for over 45 years. 

Ball and Sultan “not only carry out traditions with respect and reverence, but they play with swift passion and fury, as good as it gets when you pair these two instruments.” – The Country Blues, thecountryblues.com

Together and separately they have worked on countless film scores, TV soundtracks, commercials and sessions. They’ve appeared on television internationally, have played for audiences of 300 million via Voice of America and are frequent guests of National Public Radio. Between them, they have issued 15 CDs, 12 instructional books, two novels and several DVDs. Ball has played on nearly 300 CDs, and Sultan was recently honored by Martin Guitars with his own Signature Model 000-18KS. 

Please welcome Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan back for their sixteenth Strawberry since their 1984 debut on Thursday, May 22nd! Listen and learn more here.

When a stage four lymphoma diagnosis forced him off the road and into the hospital, Chuck Prophet didn’t know if he’d live long enough to see the end of the year, let alone get back on tour.

“I was going through a tunnel,” he recalls. “It was dark. But I had music: music to play, music to listen to, music to get me out of my head. Music was my savior.”

That much is plain to hear on Wake The Dead, Prophet’s extraordinary new album. Recorded with band of brothers ¿Qiensave?, the collection explores the world of Cumbia music, which consumed and comforted Prophet during his illness and subsequent recovery. The songs are intoxicatingly rhythmic, all but demanding you move your body, with arrangements that blur the lines between tradition and innovation. There are flashes of rock and roll, punk, surf, and soul, all filtered through the streets of San Francisco and wrapped up in a genre that traces its roots back to the jungles of South America.

“There’s something about dancing that’s life affirming,” says Prophet. “It’s a means of personal expression and celebration and human connection no matter where you come from or what language you speak.”

Like so many of life’s little joys, it’s something Prophet—who’s now in full remission—appreciates now more than ever. “It’s a good day to walk on water / Good day to swallow your pride,” he sings in the album’s final moments. “Good day to call your mother / Oh, it’s a good day to be alive.”

It’ll be a good day on Saturday, May 24th, when Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes take the stage at Strawberry! Listen and learn more here.

It is with a heavy heart and an abundance of fond memories that we share the sad news Linda Hinshaw (affectionately known as Miz Linda) passed away last weekend. Our collective Strawberry heart goes out to Linda’s family and wider circle of friends. 

Miz Linda first attended Strawberry in 1984 as a member of the Gate crew with Ricky Chicky and her family friend, Caroline Gann. Later on, she was assigned to traffic management and stationed at the road to Birch Lake for the Monday exit. At some point along the way, Miz Linda brought co-worker Stan Stratton to Strawberry, who became a lifelong friend and festival campmate. When Strawberry moved to the Nevada County Fairgrounds in 2014, Linda and Stan joined the Camping Assistance crew, where they worked together with friends Barry (Big Bear) and Maline Hazle, helping campers find their spots and parking RVs.

Anyone who goes way back with Strawberry has a fun story about hanging with Miz Linda. One year, Linda saved up all her used purple lighters so she could plant them in and around Stan’s van throughout the festival. There was at least one epic night/morning spent at Rock in the Road with JD. Or when Linda helped serve food to firefighters when the Fall Festival was postponed, and Camp Mather became a fire camp for the ‘87 Stanislaus Complex Fire. There was also the time when Strawberry crews arrived at Camp Mather to find there were no mattresses in any of the cabins. When the mattresses were delivered the day before the gates opened, Linda, Ranger Roger, Ricky Chicky, Steve, Eloy, Mitch, and a few others distributed mattresses into the wee hours of the morning. Reportedly, not one of them complained. 

Miz Linda was an absolute force of nature who was very passionate about the people and things she loved. Many Strawberrians will remember Linda as stylish and rugged, wearing her signature black cowgirl hat, as well as the years when a whip was part of the ensemble. We will never forget Miz Linda’s enthusiastic support of Strawberry, how she would whoop and cheer at the staff meetings on Wednesday night, and what that meant to us when times were tough. She will be loved, missed, and remembered as a cherished part of the Strawberry community.

Rest in peace, dear friend. We hope you are having fun with Stan, Big Bear, and many others at the big Strawberry in the sky. <3<3<3

Music fans know Chris Webster and Nina Gerber as two of the most skilled and artful musical talents. Webster’s voice is uniquely compelling while Gerber’s guitar is beautiful and powerful. Together, they’re magic.

Nina Gerber toured and recorded with the late Kate Wolf from 1978-1986.  She has since worked with Karla Bonoff, Dave Alvin, Peter Rowan, Eliza Gilkyson, and Greg Brown, to name just a few. Nina has a distinct ability to completely free herself within an eclectic range of styles. Presented with folk, country, bluegrass, rock, or blues, she is able to fall into leads which have rare reverence for the true feeling of a song, always emphasizing taste over technical display. Gerber’s latest CD, Time is Funny That Way, is out now and features guest vocals by Chris Webster, Laurie Lewis, Peter Rowan and Duo Quartet. 

Chris Webster has been a lead singer for one of the best known Northern Californian acts, Mumbo Gumbo, for over 25 years. Combining elegance and grace with a foot-shuffling manner, Webster has a purity and beauty about her that is seldom seen and never forgotten.  She can cut to the bone with tender, unrequited songs of love-gone-wrong then slap you upside the head with a fistful of lyrics and a take-charge melody that makes you step aside, stand back, and listen.

Chris Webster and Nina Gerber will make magic on the Strawberry stage on Saturday, May 24! Listen and learn more here.

The Spring 2025 Strawberry Music Festival poster is here!

The poster was designed by longtime Strawberry collaborator and artist David Boring. Thank you!

For over 15 years now, the three members of The Langan Band have been carving out their own lawlessly virtuosic path of sound; rampaging through the boundaries of conventional genre and cavorting into the territories of wild abandon, purest intimacy, and unconditional musical elation.

The trio were initially brought together by a deep respect of traditional song and music, yet they discovered a mutual love of the evisceration and regeneration of these pieces into provocative and fascinating new compositions.

Ayrshire-born John Langan is found centre-stage, seated on an explosive foot percussion rig of his own devising and fronting the trio with intricate fiery guitar rhythms and witheringly sweet and scathing vocals. To his right stands Alastair Caplin, a classically trained violinist equally discerning in both the London Prog-Folk/Jazz scenes he occupied for years and also the blistering traditional reels and jigs of his native Outer Hebrides. Stage left is the domain of Angus-born Dave Tunstall and his double bass; from here emanates a seductive concoction of eerily-bowed soundscapes, heart-stopping bass lines, and in conjunction with Caplin’s blurred bowing a truly monumental wall of orchestral noise. 

Their latest album, Plight O’ Sheep “…beautifully captures the spirit of the countless performances that have seen them win the hearts of so many fans and hone their craft over the last fifteen years.” – Alex Gallacher, KLOF Mag

Let’s give a warm Strawberry welcome to The Langan Band, hitting the stage on Friday, May 23rd! Listen and learn more here.

Gorgeous jewelry, unique ceramics, stylish clothing, stunning woodwork, fine art prints, and more! The Strawberry Artisans Tent has a wide range of beautiful handmade arts and crafts. Read more about each Spring 2025 Artisan here!

Comprised of Don Mitchell, Auyon Mukharji, Harris Paseltiner and David Senft, Darlingside’s career has been defined by the elegance of their compositions and the unity of their four voices.

Everything is Alive, Darlingside’s fourth LP, decisively exposes and differentiates the individual voices of the four songwriters—a daring reinvention for a group known for ubiquitous vocal harmonies. Grappling with change both personal and universal, with quandaries domestic and existential, Everything Is Alive is an album about loss and the struggle for a semblance of redemption. 

With the release of Everything Is Alive, the band will, for the first time, take to the road without Dave Senft. Instead of filling his spot directly, the band has wisely chosen to honor the special chemistry of the foursome by letting those arrangements live on the recordings without obligation to faithfully recreate them onstage. 

In the words of Darlingside, they are: “‘A group of odd-but-approachable friends who make music that exists somewhere on the folk-Americana spectrum! Lots of harmonies, lots of instruments, no screaming.’” — Cameron Poole, House of Solo

It’s a rare thing and becoming rarer by the day: a group of musicians with that emulsifying magic to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. And to see Darlingside perform live is to confirm this special chemistry.

Join us to witness this special chemistry on Thursday, May 22nd! Listen and learn more here.

Rita Hosking’s got the spirit, and she knows how to reach ours through her grace, heart, chops, and spunk. With award-winning, country-folk music spanning 9 albums and 20 years, this troubadour is a heavy hitter in the Northern California songwriting scene. 

Lauded for story and sense of place, her performances are praised for capturing the audience. A descendant of Cornish miners who sang in the mines of Cornwall and Grass Valley, CA, Hosking grew up with a deep regard for folk music and the power of the voice.

Hosking’s music is “precisely what Americana is intended to be: chunks of yesteryear, sewn like a patchwork quilt, and bestowed with gorgeous flair and striking harmonies.” – Mother Church Pew

Sean Feder is Hosking’s longtime partner in song and is a consummate accompanist on dobro, banjo, guitar and voice. Bill Dakin contributes heartfelt upright bass and voice, and Andy Lentz adds his outstanding fiddle playing. Together, The Rita Hosking Band delivers what Acoustic Magazine calls “timeless, unhurried elegance.” 

We are excited to welcome back our beloved emcee Rita Hosking and her band to the Strawberry Stage on Sunday, May 25th! Learn more and listen here.

The beautifully forested Nevada County Fairgrounds, nestled in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, features an amazing ecosystem of flora and fauna — and that doesn’t even include Strawberrians!

Naturalists from Nevada City’s Shady Creek Outdoor School host Eco-Walks, Critter Hunts, Bird-Watch Hikes, and Raptor Show-and-Tells over the course of the festival. Don’t forget to stop by the Beehive Exhibit, where you can see bees at work and learn about their fascinating life cycle from the folks at the Nevada County Beekeeper’s Association!

Stay tuned as we highlight some of the wonderful programs, memorable classes, and enriching activities that make Strawberry so special. Learn more here, and make sure to grab your tickets!

📸:  Kate Skogen