Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2020 is Kinda Sorta Nashville Featuring Virtual Performances From Music City
It was supposed to be a banner year for San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. Celebrating 20 years of bringing some of the best Americana and roots musicians to the West Coast, the October festival was a kind of victory lap. But, of course, you know the rest. Like practically every festival in 2020, HSB as an in-person festival was canceled due to risks from COVID-19. But the festival, using the sub-tag “Let the Music Play On”, will continue for 2020 as an online event Oct. 2-4. But, looking at the initial lineup and the plans for streaming, it could very well have been sub-tagged “Kinda Sorta Nashville.”
Expanding beyond its San Francisco base, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is using the online experience to its advantage, pulling in performances from the twin roots music meccas of Nashville and Austin. In Nashville, recorded performances will be streamed from locations across the city, including roots music's Mother Church, The Ryman Auditorium, as well as the home studio of unofficial “Mayor” of roots music, Buddy Miller. There will also be performances recorded at The Green Door, a 350 acre farm and farmer's market.
The festival is unveiling the lineup piece by piece on its website and Facebook page via a series of line drawings that let fans guess the artists. The lineup revealed so far is a who's who of roots music icons and rising stars. On the icon side, HSB 2020 features, in addition to the aforementioned Buddy Miller, two of roots best selling female artists of all time, Emmylou Harris and Patty Griffin, as well as Steve Earle, California punk pioneer John Doe from X, and Cali meets Music City songwriter to the stars and noted musical rabble rouser Chuck Prophet.
John Doe- Photo by Jim Harrington
On the rising stars side of things, the highlights are two of roots music's finest, the always sublime Yola and the strident and politically savvy Amythyst Kiah. Roots duos Birds of Chicago and 2019 Americana Emerging Artist winners The War and Treaty bring a dose of country soul. Glam rocker turned roots guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan, Shakey Graves, Los Coast, Sierra Ferrell, and Alison Brown round out the presently announced acts.
Yola- Press Photo
In addition to celebrating 20 years, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is also using its 2020 virtual festival to raise money for the Hardly Strictly Music Relief Fund: Bay Area, which provides $2000 in unrestricted support to economically devastated musicians, venues, and venue workers across the Bay Area of California. While the applications are open to all, HSB is giving first priority for these grants to populations that have historically been disproportionately affected by economic hardships, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, immigrant, trans, and disabled communities.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass will take place Oct. 2-4 via online platforms. Stay tuned for future artist announcements.