Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2012 Lineup

The upcoming Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, the 12th annual and the first after the passing of benefactor and spiritual leader Warren Hellman, continues a practice it began last year by teasing us with audio hints to reveal it’s roster.

It’s a fun undertaking that social media helps to uncover the more obscure performers. Once the audio mystery has been solved you find HSB 12, as as it has in recent years, offers a stellar roster of roots and Americana performers with the occasional current rock favorites (Heartless Bastards) and baby boom indy darlings (Patti Smith, Nick Lowe.)

These latter, I’m assured when bemoaning the Americana acts that could have filled the slots, put the “Hardly Strictly” in Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Personally I’d put The White Buffalo (The White Buffalo is now on the bill!) or Corb Lund in any of their places.

As mentioned HSB 12 is the first Hardly Strictly since the festival benefactor Warren Hellman passed away December of last year. Hellman made his bones in private equity investing and, in the truest form of benevolence and love of music (that I share) funded the free festival out of his own pocket every year since its inception, I’ve been told that his will has provided for the event’s continued funding for at least a decade after his death.

The beautiful stretch of Golden Gate Park where the festival’s 5 stages are erected had it’s name changed from Speedway Meadow to Hellman Hollow in tribute.

The festival’s being a free event has led to serious overcrowding the last few years to the point where moving from stage to stage has become a chore and, on hotter days, a risky endeavor. Most of my my friends pick=jk a stage with the roster they most prefer and settle in with a blanket and cooler.

I spend the day braving the crowds and visiting these friends. After all, as an Americana music blogger it will not do to lay in the grass while Ralph Stanley or Buddy Miller echos from a distant stage.

Remember bring water, stay upwind from the weed, and leave your young children and pets at home, Especially on warmer days they don’t deserve the self-inflicted torture of the crowds.

Here’s to great music and here’s to Warren Hellman, a man I met briefly (and fittingly at the Ryman Theater in Nashville.) He was warm and gracious and his love for this music poured from him. Bless you Mr. Hellman and the legacy have left San Francisco. If you haven’t see it take a look at the archived Hellman tribute concert from Ocean Beach,

Here’s my best guess at the bill so far; Emmylou Harris has not been mentioned yet but as the sole performer that has been on the bill since the first HSB look for her addition.

Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, The Head and the Heart, Glen Hansard, Patty Griffin, Dwight Yoakam, The Lumineers, Nick Lowe, Heartless Bastards, Robert Earl Keen, Son Volt, Ralph Stanley, Lloyd Cole, Les Claypool, Todd Snider, Dirty Three, Dave Alvin, Rubblebucket, Sara Watkins, Buddy Miller, Jerry Douglas, The Milk Carton Kids, Del Mccoury, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Peter Rowan, The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Laurie Lewis, Red Baraat, Giant Giant Sand, Little Green Cars, Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express, Tiny Television, The Wandering, Laurie Lewis And The Right Hands, Amanda Shaw & The Cute Guys, Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue, Chuck Mead & His Grassy Knoll Boys, Tim O’brien Party of Seven, Time Jumper, Steve Earle and the Dukes (and Duchesses), The Go to Hell Man Clan, Patterson Hood & the Downtown Rumblers, Old Crow Medicine Show

Mavis Staples Added to Pickathon Line-Up

The Annual Pickathon (Aug 5-7) is one of the best festivals going. The low-key event is held on a the forested Mt Scott 80 acres of Pendarvis Farm  near Portland, OR. featuring multiples stages generally focusing on Americana and roots music but, like the definition of Americaana itself,  blurs the boundaries in order to deliver great music which also includes Indy rock, Cajun music and some living legends.

Americana Album of the Year Grammy winner Mavis Staples will be joined by and more than 40 artists like the cool Cajun band I met at the Grammys,  the Pine Leaf Boys, and the hot Oregon-based country rockers Truckstop Darlin’. So pack the tent and bring the family (kids under 12 are free!) enjoy the fresh air and go hear some great music!

The Pickathon lineup so far:

Mavis Staples
Bill Callahan
Lee Fields & The Expressions
Califone
Damien Jurado
Thao
Fruit Bats
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Vetiver
Laura Veirs
Brownout
The Wilders
The Sadies
Richard Swift
Pine Leaf Boys
The Builders and The Butchers
Danny Barnes
Sonny & The Sunsets
Whitey Morgan & The 78’s
Mike + Ruthy
Black Lillies
Strand of Oaks
Elliott Brood
Bruce Molsky
Ages and Ages
Joy Kills Sorrow
Charlie Parr
Old Light
Ted Jones and The Tarheel Boys
Buffalo Killers
Pokey LaFarge
Rock Plaza Central
Truckstop Darlin’
Cahalen Morrison & Eli West
Diane Ferlatte

Check the official Pichathin site for more additions to the lineup

News Round Up: Pickathon Line-Up Announced

  • Pickathon has announced an impressive lineup for for 12th year. Bonnie Prince Billy, Heartless Bastards, Billy Joe Shaver. Langhorne Slim, Frazey Ford, The Cave Singers, T-Model Ford, Roadside Graves, Chatham County Line and many many more. Pickathon will take place on August 6-8 at Pendarvis Farm near Portland, Oregan.
  • The New York Times follows the long road of Crazy Heart from Thomas Cobb’s 1987 novel to Academy Awards nominated movie that was nearly straight to DVD. and the post-modernist writer that was the inspiration for Bad Blake. (Bad Blake, Post-Modernist Country Crooner?)
  • The Court Yard Hounds (Dixie Chicks sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire) are taking pre-orders for their new album (Standard and Deluxe edition with extra goodies) on their web site.  Folks ponying up for pre-orders will gain immediate access 4-song download and and get first crack at tickets for their upcoming tour. The tou will include a atop at SXSW for their first live concert as Court Yard Hounds. The sisters will take the also take the stage during the Americana Music Association showcase at Antone’s on Thursday March 18th and will go on to do a string of intimate shows across the country. The CD will be released on Columbia Records, on shelves May 4, 2010.
  • In more new release news Gothic-country punkers Th ‘ Legendary Shack Shackers will release their seventh full-length album, Agridustrial, on April 13th on their own Colonel Knowledge label. Get the first single from the release below.

Th ‘ Legendary Shack Shackers – Sin Eater