The HSB festival, funded by venture capitalist and amateur banjo player Warren Hellman, began in 2001 as a strictly bluegrass festival. But because the festival performers represent more diverse musical genres every year, the word "hardly" was added to the title in 2003. This year's lineup included names like John Prine, David Grisman, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Rickey Skaggs, Bruce Hornsby and Emmylou Harris.
The crowd, as much a dazzling display of entertainment as the actual performances, was not without its fair share of tie-dyed rags, Grateful Dead tattoos, children named after celestial objects and rising smoke clouds. Hippie enclaves permeated a crowd predominantly composed of yippis -- defined by Urban Dictionary as "an urbanized and/or now middle class hippie" (example in context: "Dude, check the yippie listening to Grateful Dead in his SUV").
Since the recent onset of my own banjo-obsession -- a development that began when I purchased a banjo not too long ago -- I had been craving a tune performed live with the instrument, and Earle Scruggs' Sunday performance provided a good dose of banjo-picking inspiration. Scruggs, who more or less altered the historical course of banjo technique with his self-titled, finger picking method, commenced with "Salty Dog" and later slipped into his famous "Foggy Mountain Breakdown." Scruggs and company were occasionally overshadowed during the show by the Blue-Angels, who flew loudly above on both Saturday and Sunday in celebration of San Francisco's Fleet Weekend -- but Scruggs did not resist commenting on the intrusion and was met with boos when he said, "I think I just saw George W. flying backstage."
Politics entered the park again when congressional candidate and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan appeared at the end of Steve Earle's set and demanded, "Bring our troops home, impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney and vote for me!"
Following Scruggs performance, the new-age bluegrass gems Bela Fleck and the Flecktones performed on another one of the park's five stages. Despite trampling many anonymous limbs to find a spot among the multitude of viewers that attended the show, Bela Fleck -- who will be visiting Dartmouth this spring -- provided a quality experience with an instrumental inventiveness. They shifted into an unexpected version of "Wipeout" before concluding the show.
My favorite performance of the festival came next, juxtaposed next to old-time luminaries -- a newbie bluegrass jam-band by the name of Railroad Earth. The band offered its rambling, bluegrass-jam sound to the small collection of devout fans, who call themselves "hobos." Remaining on their feet for the entire show, unlike many of the other crowds that were comprised of mostly beach-blanket leisure-folk, Railroad Earth's fans, myself included, lived up to the reputation of cultish-devotees.
Faded and fatigued, I joined the masses and attended Emmylou Harris's finale performance, which concluded a 52-hour weekend of 72 performances on five different stages. Gaining popularity as a Bay Area tradition, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival drew a collection of fans, ranging in age from infant to senior citizen and coming from anywhere between the ritzy bay-area hills and San Fran's skid row. And like any bluegrass festival, Hardly Strictly also included confectionary, glass and chocolate vendors. The crowd seemed to enjoy the festival's party scene as much as the actual musical performances.
Hardly Strictly stands as a reminder of San Francisco's historical relationship with free music in the park. Even for those unable to see bluegrass in such prime live-performance form, the bands from HSB are worth downloading to your iPod for any time you have a spare music-less moment. Gone are San Fran's days of Janis's raspy moans or the rambling Dead, but the city's spirit persists through musical and cultural traditions like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass No. 7.
