Jimmie Dale Gilmore gave Saturday’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass audience a little insight into how “hardly” came to be part of the festival’s name.
Festival benefactor Warren Hellman was trying to accommodate Gilmore, a Texas singer-songwriter lacking formal bluegrass credentials. So he renamed his “Strictly Bluegrass” festival and opened the door to a broader range of acts. Read More
The early forecast called for rain, but perhaps the skies have enough sense not to spoil the nicest gift San Franciscans receive each year.
The 11th-annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival got off to a fabulous start Friday and Saturday amid perfect weather and one of the concert’s strongest lineups ever. At any one time, several worthy acts were performing on a stage somewhere in Golden Gate Park. Friday and Saturday’s lineups yielded a wealth of riches. Read More
Traffic in San Francisco is never a picnic, but this weekend could be particularly nightmarish for motorists because a couple of major events are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people to The City. Read More
Mancunian prog-rockers Elbow have been making great Genesis-complex music since their overlooked 2001 debut “Asleep in the Back,” fronted by Guy Garvey’s eerily Peter Gabriel-ish vocals. At the time, they accepted they had a cult following, but not huge popular appeal. Yet things changed in 2008, when they won Britain’s prestigious Mercury Prize with their fourth recording, “The Seldom Seen Kid.” This year’s more adventurous “Build a Rocket, Boys!” arrived at No. 2 on the UK charts. Read More
Here are a few top names among dozens of acts on six stages:
FRIDAY
Robert Plant and the Band of Joy: 5:45 p.m., Banjo Stage, Speedway Meadow east side, near JFK Drive
Bright Eyes: 6 p.m., Rooster Stage, Marx Meadow, near JFK Drive
Chris Isaak: 4:30 p.m., Star Stage, Lindley Meadow, JFK Drive near 30th Avenue Read More
For 50 years, Country Music Hall of Famer Merle Haggard smoked Camel shorts without a filter. He finally quit cold turkey in 1991, he says, when he couldn’t get a fresh one:
“They started putting so many chemicals in ’em to make their shelf life longer that they ruined the tobacco. So I got mad at ’em and stopped.” Read More
Sure, you’re already heading down to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in a couple of weeks in Golden Gate Park — one of the greatest music festivals on the planet, and free to boot. But did you know this? Read More
If you carefully perused the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival lineup that was just released, one featured name might have induced a head-scratching double take. But yes, it’s true — our own local legend Chris Isaak is actually on the bill for the very first time. Why? Read More
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the yearly 3-day free music festival in Golden Gate Park’s Speedway Meadow has announced their lineup for this year’s event set to take place Friday, September 30th to Sunday, October 2nd. this year’s edition offers Robert Plant & the Band of Joy, Bright Eyes, Bob Mould, Broken Social Scene and Buckethead. Read More
Warren Hellman has what he calls a “simple” question. “Why can’t the United States be more like Speedway Meadows?”
Speedway Meadows is the Golden Gate Park venue that hosts the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, the free, widely attended three-day concert in The City that attracts very little controversy. Read More
