hardly strictly bluegrass

hardly strictly bluegrass 8 (http://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass/) took place in oct of last year and is the 8th installment of this amazing FREE festival in golden gate park that is paid for by warren hellman as a gift to the city (and, as he likes to say, his own selfish desire to see great music) and produced by the amazing folks at slims/gamh and sheri/ryan @ mercenary productions. each year i run the archival production to make sure something remains to document the event and tonight i get to see on a big screen (see: http://www.virtualvenues.net/) my 2hr 15 min condensing of this 3 days of 5 stages of music.

it's a nice moment to relive the festival for warren and the crew who are usually too busy working to get around to all of the stages. combine it with a great meal in a lovely venue and it's really special. this year's emotional touchpoint is the amazing version of "house of the rising sun" by odetta (just vocals and piano). we of course lost her to the next world just 2 months later so this is a little bittersweet and that much more affecting.

i'm still looking for the right place to hold the screening for my own crew. if you read this and are in san francisco and know of a great screening room, let me know :} as this is just a private viewing there is no plan for a public release, but my hope is that some time in the future we are able to do a retrospective of this amazing festival and the effect it's having on the bay area and music community worldwide.