As is tradition, organizers of this year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival have begun teasing out the lineup with a mystery medley, and so we now know who a few of the performers will be.
"See if you can guess without using Shazam/Soundhound/etc!" the organizers say.
Welp, we did it for you. The medley includes the song "Father Mountain," a collaboration between Calexico and Iron & Wine — so it's unclear if they'll be performing together or separately, or both — as well as songs by Bettye LaVette, Steve Earle & the Dukes, The Milk Carton Kids, Margo Price, The Meat Puppets, Jackie Greene, Hayes Carll, and The Waterboys.
This is just the first batch. More medleys will be popping up on the Hardly Strictly site in the next couple weeks until the full and final lineup announcement arrives. And there are likely to be some more big names. (Last year's fest featured
The free three-day music festival happens in almost the same footprint of space in Golden Gate Park as Outside Lands, just two months later. This year's Hardly Strictly will be October 4 to 6, and as usual, it will likely be quite sunny and crowded.
Below, a few selections for you to check out from the lineup as we know it so far.