California

California stands among the elite ensembles devoted to refined and technically dazzling bluegrass. Fiddler Byron Berline and flatpicking guitarist Dan Crary steer the five-piece group, whose performances consistently showcase extraordinary instrumental command.

The group’s origins stretch back more than twenty years to the period after Berline assembled Sundance once his earlier ensemble Country Gazette dissolved. That band had also featured Crary alongside banjoist John Hickman. Although Sundance issued a strong debut on MCA, the lineup lasted just two years. In 1977 Berline accepted a two-week Japanese tour and enlisted Crary and Hickman, forming the trio known as Berline, Crary and Hickman, or BCH. The three musicians continued in that configuration through the entire 1980s. Bassist and vocalist Steve Spurgin joined them in 1988, prompting the album Now They Are Four. When mandolinist and vocalist John Moore entered in 1990, the unit became a quintet and adopted the name California. During their inaugural season together, the International Bluegrass Music Association named the band Instrumental Group of the Year.

Oklahoma-born Berline, a three-time fiddle champion, ranks among bluegrass music’s most inventive players. His résumé lists stints with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys (1966-1967), Dillard and Clark (1969-1979), Dillard Expedition (1970-1971), and Country Gazette (1971-1975), as well as leadership of Sundance beginning in 1975. Session work has placed him alongside the Band, the Rolling Stones, the Byrds, the Doobie Brothers, Manhattan Transfer, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, John Denver, Arlo Guthrie, Elton John, Gram Parsons, Earl Scruggs, Stephen Stills, Rod Stewart, and James Taylor.

Since 1960 Crary has drawn notice for his melodic flatpicking. A charter member of the Bluegrass Alliance, he pioneered guitar arrangements of traditional fiddle tunes. Academically he earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Human Communications Studies and has served as an associate professor at Cal State from 1974 onward. In 1991 he advised Michelle Shocked on her roots-oriented release Arkansas Traveler.

Apart from their work in California, both leaders have sustained independent careers. Berline’s 1995 album Fiddle and a Song included appearances by Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Vince Gill, Mason Williams, and the Sherman Oaks Presbyterian Church Quartet. That same year he and John Hickman issued the duo recording Double Trouble. Crary’s 1992 project Thunderation earned an INDIE award for Best Stringed Instrumental Music Recording, while his 1994 album Jammed If I Do benefited from contributions by Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Norman Blake, and Beppe Gambetta.