This year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is starting to take shape, and the first line-up of artists just confirmed Wednesday features the String Cheese Incident, Reverend Horton Heat, and Lucinda Williams.

There was plenty of head-scratching last week among fans of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, as the Chronicle published an initial lineup for this year’s 25th anniversary festival (October 3-5). That article reported on Thursday, July 17 that the initial 2025 lineup included jam band the String Cheese Incident and rockabilly legends the Reverend Horton Heat. But that article suddenly disappeared into vapor with no explanation, leaving fans to wonder if those artist confirmations were true, and why the festival didn’t use its normal “teaser” release format where they promote snippets of tunes on their app to give fans clues as to which acts are playing.


Well, the snippets did appear on the app come Tuesday of this week. And as listeners quickly learned, the Chronicle’s now-deleted scoop turned out to be entirely correct.


So now a new article in the Chronicle rounds up the first batch of acts confirmed for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2025. Sure enough, the acts include the String Cheese Incident and Reverend Horton Heat, plus guitarist Lucinda Williams; Grammy-winning Best New Artist, jazz vocalist Samara Joy; Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets (Lowe has previously played the 2004, 2007, and 2012 festivals); and Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes (Chuck Prophet has played there more than half a dozen times).

Additionally, many people put two and two together when an Emmylou Harris tribute concert was announced for Thursday, October 2 at The Masonic, and assumed that all of the acts on that bill would also be playing the weekend’s festival. That hunch proved correct too, as today’s lust confirms Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2025 will also feature Emmylou Harris, Allison Russell, Rosanne Cash, and Steve Earle, who are all playing that Thursday night show.  

More artists playing this year's free music festival will be confirmed in the weeks and months to come. But for now, here’s the complete list of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass artists confirmed for 2025:

  • Courtney Barnett
  • Sam Bush
  • Rosanne Cash
  • Shawn Colvin
  • Rodney Crowell
  • Steve Earle
  • Patty Griffin
  • Emmylou Harris
  • Samara Joy
  • Albert Lee
  • Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets
  • Buddy Miller
  • Margo Price
  • Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes
  • Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band
  • Reverend Horton Heat
  • The String Cheese Incident
  • Dan Tyminski Band
  • Watchhouse
  • Lucinda Williams

Related: This Year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Will Have a New 'General Store' Selling Ice, Snacks, Sunblock, and More [SFist]

Image: NOBLESVILLE, INDIANA - SEPTEMBER 23: Keith Moseley, Michael Travis, Michael Kang, Jason Hann, Bill Nershi, and Kyle Hollingsworth of The String Cheese Incident performs during Farm Aid 2023 at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center on September 23, 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana. (Photo by Stephen J. Cohen/WireImage)