Excited to announce that our very first medley has just been posted at https://t.co/imKS7Hkjgg! Take a listen - can you guess them all? pic.twitter.com/dnuiX6XwQQ
— Hardly Strictly (@HSBFest) August 15, 2017
As they do every year, the organizers of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass have put out a teaser to clue us in to who'll be performing at this year's free music fest, and they leave it up to you and Shazam to piece the lineup together ahead of the formal lineup announcement.
But this time around they wasted no time in posting the answers and listing out exactly who's in the medley, and it goes something like this:
(1) The Secret Sisters
(2) Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real
(3) Jon Langford's Four Lost Souls
(4) Terri Hendrix with Lloyd Maines
(5) The Sons Of The Soul Revivers
(6) Justin Townes Earle
(7) Rodney Crowell
(8) Gurf Morlix
(9) Midnight North
(10) The Nth Power
The annual celebration of all things bluegrass and folksy (and rock-y and various other things) is happening this year on October 6, 7, and 8 in Golden Gate Park in roughly the same footprint as Outside Lands, minus the Polo Field. And because it's free and there are frequently some pretty big names gracing the stages, people pack the park in very large numbers, blankets and lawn chairs in tow.
The festival was founded and funded sixteen years ago by the late billionaire Warren Hellman, for whom Hellman Hollow in the park is now named. It's likely to go on for quite a while via resources set aside in Hellman's estate, but as we learned last year, the oft-repeated idea that the festival was "endowed forever" isn't exactly true. Hellman's son Mick Hellman said "It’s not technically endowed, but it’s secured for a long time."
Last year's festival included big names like Patty Griffin, Mavis Staples, and Kris Kristofferson, and this year organizers will likely leave the headliners for last, as they tease out more of the lineup with more medleys.
Below, a new song from Secret Sisters called "He's Fine." The group consists of sisters Laura and Lydia Rogers from Muscle Shoals, Alabama.