Jim's Music Notes: HSB10

Back in Portland and thought I'd post a few parting words about Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. The 10th Anniversary HSB was one of the coolest festival experiences I've ever had. It's hard to believe this is a free event that is financed by one person - Warren Hellman. A banjo playing, music junkie, multi-millionaire who 10 years ago decided to put a festival together - essentially throwing a really big party in Golden Gate Park. One that has grown. Really big. Six stages, almost 100 acts, 600 thousand people ... and very few problems. Rules: be nice, be patient, make room for others, no smoking tobacco, have a great time. Outstanding music. Period. Some acts have performed every year (as Emmylou said, as long as Warren puts it on, she'll be there - already with 10 years perfect attendance), others made their debut this year. And you never know what musical collaborations might occur. Acts don't come in, play a set and leave. If they can, they schedule themselves to hang around San Francisco all weekend - you could watch them enjoying themselves along with the rest of us. There were sets at clubs at night and after-parties ...

I think this is now on my list of must-attend events (ya think?) ... And I got to spend the weekend with some of my favorite old friends who live in Bay Area (where I resided for 12 years) and new - some of my closest boogie buddies from Portland who made the trek down. It was a blast.

So here's a few photos from Sunday ... the highlights for me on the last day were Randy Newman (performing a set of his "greatest hits"), Doc Watson (hard to believe he's 87 - sounded in great form), Nick Lowe (was right in front for Nick and wasn't ever tempted to leave to hear anyone else - even with Patti Smith going on at same time), and ending with a wonderful Emmylou Harris set (oh, and caught the last Avett Bros tune at their stage to cap it all)....