Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
October 2nd at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

If I was a billionaire, I like to think that I, too, would throw a giant spectacle of free music as a gift to my city. For nearly a decade, local investor Warren Hellman has made such a contribution to the cultural fabric of San Francisco, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is widely considered one of the best offerings that the Bay has to give. This year’s festival reportedly brought in 750,000 people over the course of its three days, and if you can tolerate wading through a crowd that massive, the rewards are well worth it. I was only able to make it out on Friday evening (the rest of my weekend plans foiled when I sadly caught a seriously random stomach bug), which I was pretty devastated about, but at least I made it out for the kickoff day.

On Friday, I left work early and hauled ass out to Speedway Meadow to catch as much of John Prine’s set as I possibly could—I’m a big fan and had never seen him live. By the time I made it to the festival grounds, Prine was in the midst of singing a beautiful version of “Angel from Montgomery”, so I somewhat forcefully shoved my way through the crowd and found my friends just to the right of the sound board, where we camped out for the remainder of his set, which was lovely. With only one stage of the weekend’s six operating at this time, Lyle Lovett was scheduled to close the night, and I have to admit, I don’t know much about him, other than he’s that successful country singer/actor dude that Julia Roberts once married. Whereas I expected a rusty voice and a twangy set, his music was instead quite sophisticated, he and the band decked out in dapper attire with a jazzy flavor entrenched in the songs. Before too long, Lovett closed down the inaugural evening and the weather turned chilly, so the massive exodus began—old men in overalls escorting their wives, college-aged friends drunkenly spilling out of the crowd, yuppies and hippies in corduroy and fleece, kids and puppies trying to stay afloat about the fray… the whole of the San Francisco community and beyond together taking in the beauties of what this splendid city has to offer. – Angela Zimmerman

Watch: John Prine, “Hello in There” [at youtube.com]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
October 4th at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

It was already chilly at Golden Gate Park when I reached the Rooster Stage, partway into Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3’s set. The Venus 3 features most of R.E.M.’s touring line-up: Guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Scott McCaughey of the Minus 5 and Young Fresh Fellows, and drummer Bill Rieflin, formerly of Ministry. Much of the wily English musician’s set drew from his newest album, Goodnight Oslo, sprinkled in-between with his peculiar, artfully nonsensical yarns, and he threw in a spine-tingling “Madonna of the Wasps” for good measure.

After his set finished, I was able to move up closer to the stage for Billy Bragg’s set. Although I’m not terribly familiar with his back catalog outside of the two Mermaid Avenue records he did with Wilco, he was the blustery, charming working man’s rocker-dude I had imagined him to be. He sent his roadie off to fetch him a mug of tea, and later had to ask him to get another cup, because the tab at the end of the teabag string had fallen into the tea itself—whoops! Playing solo, swapping his electric guitar for an acoustic guitar for a few tunes, he played several of his own tunes, a couple of Woody Guthrie songs, and closed out with a cover of Bob Marley’s “One Love”, swapping out the “let’s get together” for “let’s drop the debt,” in reference to the international effort to negate poor nations’ unpayable debts to other countries. A bit of an awkward cover, but he had the crowd pretty thrilled, nearly everyone waving their arms and singing in unison.

About an hour after Bragg’s set, I walked over to the absolute mob that was the Arrow Stage to catch Aimee Mann’s set. It was difficult to stand anywhere near to the stage, but I managed to move over enough to hear a decent mix of the sound with a view from afar—enough to see Mann’s long figure and blond hair. She played material ranging from her newest record, @#%&*! Smilers (including leadoff track “Freeway”), back to the famous Magnolia soundtrack, including the still-devastating “Wise Up” and “Save Me”, which she self-deprecatingly proclaimed was famous because it “lost an Oscar to Phil Collins.” Funny, but seriously—she is so amazing!

Similarly great was Mavis Staples, back at the Rooster Stage. By 4pm, it had become impossible to get within sight of the stage (there were over a couple hundred thousand people in attendance, reportedly). Luckily, the sound systems in the park carried the music far enough for those of us a quarter-mile away to hear. Staples, who’s now 70 years old, sounded fantastic, and her band featured three back-up singers, including Yvonne Staples, and a simple three-piece band of guitar, bass, and drums. They played Staple Singers favorites like “I’ll Take You There” and “Why? (Am I Treated So Bad)” as well as tunes even more familiar to a folk/bluegrass festival crowd, opening the set with Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and doing a terrific cover of the Band’s “The Weight”, perhaps the best tune of the set.

The sun was starting to recede over at the Star Stage, where Neko Case was performing, and I caught about 10 minutes of her set before heading home in an attempt to beat traffic. As usual, the festival was a pleasure—for someone who usually can’t stand festivals, it’s a relief, the kind of thing that, heaps of trash bags aside, restores one’s faith in a large group’s ability to peaceably assemble and enjoy great music. – Michael Harkin

Watch: Aimee Mann, “Save Me” [at youtube.com]

Tags: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, 2009, live review