Hardly Strictly Bluegrass: hardly anything but awesome

It takes little more than a (rare) fogless fall day to make a trip to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park worth quite a trek, but the long list of artists gracing its green fields during the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival might help considerably if travel plans were somehow still in question. Oh, and the shows are free.

The carefully qualified title of the concert series, which takes place Oct. 3-5, befits its motley crew of a line-up. Bluegrass vets Ricky Skaggs, Earl Scruggs, Darrell Scott and Bill Evans (not the pianist) will be joined by not-so-bluegrass folkers like Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Iron & Wine, Tift Merritt and former Jayhawks frontmen Mark Olson and Gary Louris. And from even further off the beaten bluegrass path come pub rock icon Elvis Costello (performing with High Whines and Spirits) and piano-popster Ben Kweller.

A full list of performers is available at the festival's website, whose false-advertising URL (it reads StrictlyBluegrass.com) seems to suffer from a tiny, genre-driven personality disorder.

Related links:
StriclyBluegrass.com
Cover Story: Iron and Wine - Growing a Bard
Concert Review: An Evening with Mark Olson and Gary Louris

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