Hardly Strictly Bluegrass’ Let the Music Play On… To Air This Week + Livestream Fundraising for Musicians through Artist Relief

  Hardly Strictly Bluegrass’

 Let the Music Play On… To Air This Week 

+ Livestream Fundraising for Musicians

through Artist Relief

Cr: Michael Wilson

WATCH THE TRAILER: HERE

October 1 - San Francisco, CA  Hardly Strictly Bluegrass celebrates their 20th Anniversary this year with  Let The Music Play On …. airing Saturday, October 3rd at 

2 pm PT / 5 pm ET on Circle TV, HardlyStrictlyBluegrass.com, Facebook, YouTube,  Nugs.TV and LuckReunion.com. The broadcast will feature new performances from HSB veterans including Boz Scaggs, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Earle and the Halfgrass Dukes feat. Tim O’Brien & Dennis Crouch, Jim Lauderdale, first-time performers Ashley Monroe, Shakey Graves, Sierra Ferrell, Black Banjo Reclamation Project, returning artists Fantastic Negrito,  Aaron Lee Tasjan, The War and Treaty, Yola, Rhiannon Giddens, and many more. See the full lineup at https://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com. 

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass has become an annual pilgrimage for music fans from all over the world. This year Hardly Strictly Bluegrass enlisted fans and staff to share memories from past years and is encouraging them to share their at-home set-ups for creating Let the Music Play On viewing space. The submissions have ranged from houses to dorm rooms, to backyards and living rooms.   “One of the great powers of this music [bluegrass] is the ability to bring people together,” says long time HSB performer Alison Brown.”Not just people who are alike, but people who are different and who are from all different generations. It’s a really wonderful common denominator. I think, maybe, Warren understood that... but it’s no doubt that it’s just one of the best gifts that anyone ever gave anybody, is Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. “ 

As part of the Let the Music Play On initiative, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass announced a charitable partnership with Artist Relief, a fund created by a coalition of national arts grantmakers, to support musicians affected by the COVID-19 crisis. In this partnership, the festival has donated $1 million in immediate relief for musicians across the country. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and Artist Relief are working to raise awareness and funds for musicians affected by the COVID-19 crisis leading up to and during this year’s festival. The livestream will include interactive fundraising features to engage the audience, share real-time donation information, and highlight the amount raised by the HSB community. Tax-deductible donations can be made at artistrelief.org/hsb; 100 percent of donations made through this link will be applied directly to aid for musicians.   

For more information on the broadcast visit www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com. To stay up-to-date, be sure to sign up for the newsletter, and follow HSB on social media.

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Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Announces the Full Artist Lineup for Let the Music Play On…

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Announces the Full Artist Lineup for 

 Let the Music Play On…

+ Announce Charitable Partnership with Artist Relief

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is thrilled to announce the full line up for this year’s Let The Music Play On Broadcast airing Saturday, October 3rd at 2 pm PT / 5 pm ET on Circle TV, HardlyStrictlyBluegrass.com, HSB Facebook, YouTube and  Nugs.TV. The broadcast is a celebration of roots music, honoring the 20th anniversary of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and featuring new performances from legendary artists such as Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Bonnie Raitt and Steve Earle and the Halfgrass Dukes feat. Tim O’Brien and Dennis Crouch, to first time performers Birds of Chicago, Sierra Ferrell and Tré Burt and  returning performers Carrie Rodriguez, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock. “I’ve been so lucky to be able to host a day on the Rooster Stage for the last six years or so and invite friends and acts that I just love and think people would adore,” says Buddy Miller. “This year, we’re doing the “Cavalcade of Stars” from my studio with a lot of those same people – Emmylou Harris, The War & Treaty, Ashley Monroe, Kieran Kane and Rayna Gellert, The McCrary Sisters, and Jim Lauderdale.”  The performances will be accompanied by select archival moments and interviews highlighting the festival’s rich history.

As part of the Let the Music Play On initiative, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is proud t0 announce a charitable partnership with Artist Relief, a fund created by a coalition of national arts grant-makers, to support musicians affected by the COVID-19 crisis. In this partnership, the festival has donated $1 million in immediate relief for musicians across the country and will work with Artist Relief to raise awareness and funds for musicians affected by the COVID-19 crisis leading up to and during this year’s festival.

A national, multidisciplinary partnership between Academy of American Poets, Artadia, Creative Capital, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, National YoungArts Foundation, and United States Artists, Artist Relief is a emergency relief fund  that provides  $5,000 grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19.  Since launching in April, the fund has disbursed over $13 million to artists across the nation with $2.3 million to musicians directly. With Hardly Strictly Bluegrass’ support, Artist Relief will be able to continue to make grants to musicians through December.

“As artists we are constantly being motivated by our passions, but during hard times it can be difficult to create and innovate,” says  GRAMMY Award Winner, Two-Time EMMY Nominee, 2020 United States Artists Fellow and Let the Music Play On participant Dom Flemons the American Songster. “Art has always served as a reflection of the world, so now more than ever it’s important for artists to keep on creating.  Through the partnership with Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival and the Artist Relief Fund, folks have an opportunity to receive some financial relief that can ultimately help us plant roots and build bridges.”

Tax-deductible donations can be made at artistrelief.org/hsb; 100 percent of donations made through this link will be applied directly to aid for musicians.   

This national relief  effort comes on the heels of the Hardly Strictly Music Relief Fund: Bay Area, a $1.5M charitable initiative to support the local Bay Area music community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nominations and applications are now closed with funding announcements coming in early October. 

More information on the broadcast visit www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com. To stay up-to-date, be sure to sign up for the newsletter, and follow HSB on social media.

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HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS ANNOUNCES PATTY GRIFFIN, CHUCK PROPHET, SHAKEY GRAVES, BIRDS OF CHICAGO AND LOS COAST FOR LET THE MUSIC PLAY ON

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Announces the Next Round of Artists in 

Let the Music Play On…

A Broadcast Bringing the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Experience 

Into Homes Everywhere Saturday, October 3rd

Cr. Mark Ulriksen

September 9, 2020 - San Francisco, CA -  Hardly Strictly Bluegrass announces the third round of musicians in this year’s Let The Music Play On, with HSB veterans Chuck Prophet, Patty Griffin, and first-time performers Birds of Chicago, Los Coast, and Shakey Graves.  Let the Music Play On is a celebration of roots music, honoring the 20th Anniversary of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, airing the first weekend of October featuring new performance footage, archival sets, and fans’ festival memories from previous years.

In the 20 years since Hardly Strictly Bluegrass first brought fans together in Golden Gate Park, the festival continues to grow in size, with over 80 bands across six stages that attract over 750K music fans and continues to evolve with a diverse line up that encompasses the wide range of roots music genres. “As time marches on, what roots music is should change, ya know?” says Shakey Graves. “I think it’s just storytelling... a product of that time. I think that there’s something that is really pure to always go back to. I think that Hardly Strictly is doing it right in the sense that there will be a human experience within the music.” 

As HSB has evolved over the years one thing has always remained the same is that the festival is completely free to attend.  Founded by  Warren and Chris Hellman as a gift to the city of San Francisco, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass has always been free to the public, and void of any advertisers or corporate sponsorships.  The focus is solely on the music and the sense of the community that the music creates.  “The free part brings this incredible diversity to the crowds, so people will see you that would never think of seeing you,” says longtime HSB artist Patty Griffin. “Everybody is out mulling around, and they’ll hear something on a stage and they’ll just cruise down that way and suddenly they are meeting an Artist they never would have heard of.  Because it’s free there’s this huge swath of humanity there, every continent on earth is represented, and largely Americans so that shows you how diverse America is and it’s really beautiful that way.”

The community of music fans is what gives the festival life, and this year to incorporate the human experience of HSB, the producers have asked fans and attendees to contribute their favorite memories from years past in the form of photos, videos, stories, sketches, etc.  by emailing them to memories@hardlystrictlybluegrass.org., all of which will be considered for inclusion in October’s broadcast. Entries have come in from all over the world including incredible sketches from award-winning artist and illustrator, and regular HSB attendee Mark Urliksen.  His submissions included illustrations, created in realtime of HSB sets over the years. His drawings captured so much of the spirit of the event that he was commissioned to create the official artwork for the line-up announcements for this year’s Hardly Strictly Broadcast.  Urliksen is best known for his work with the New Yorker where he has been a regular contributor since 1993, with more than 55 magazine covers to his credit. He has been the illustrator for the San Francisco Jazz Festival, has created murals for companies such as United Airlines and the Chicago Bears that grace the walls of the United Club at Soldier Field. In 2006 his New Yorker parody cover of the film Brokeback Mountain was named the year’s top magazine news cover by the Magazine Publishers of America,  and work is in the permanent collection of The Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. More of Urliksen’s work can be viewed at https://markulriksen.com  

More information on the broadcast and lineup will be announced in the coming weeks at  www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com. To stay up-to-date, be sure to sign up for the newsletter, and follow HSB on social media.

 Keep Up With Hardly Strictly Bluegrass:

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HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS ANNOUNCES THE NEXT ROUND OF ARTISTS IN LET THE MUSIC PLAY ON…

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Announces the Next Round of Artists in 

Let the Music Play On…

A Broadcast Bringing the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Experience 

to Backyards and Living Rooms Everywhere

the first Weekend of October

Cr. Mark Ulriksen

September 3, 2020 - San Francisco, CA -  Hardly Strictly Bluegrass announces its second round of musicians in this year’s Let The Music Play On, led by music legends and festival veterans Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Steve Earle & the Halfgrass Dukes (feat. Tim O’Brien and Dennis Crouch) and returning artist The War and Treaty and first-timer Amythyst Kiah. Let the Music Play On is a celebration of roots music, honoring the 20th Anniversary of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, airing the first weekend of October featuring new performance footage, archival sets, and fans’ festival memories from previous years.

What started as a way for Warren and Chris Hellman to share the music they loved from their favorite artists with the city of San Francisco has grown into one of the largest national music festivals. With over 80 bands across six stages, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass attracts over 750,000 attendees annually to Golden Gate Park. Over the past 20 years, the festival has become an annual pilgrimage for fans and musicians alike. “It was always the first date I would put on my calendar,” says Emmylou Harris. “Whatever else I do in a particular year, the first weekend in October I am going to be in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park in Hellman Hollow playing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass,” she continues. “I’m really grateful that we’re going to carry on in some way this gift that Warren has given to musicians, and really music lovers, everywhere.”

This year, with safety as a top priority and adhering California’s statewide mandate prohibiting large public gatherings, the festival will not be taking place in its traditional setting of Golden Gate Park, but Let the Music Play On will be bringing the spirit of the Porch, Bandwagon, Banjo, Rooster, Swan, and Towers of Gold Stages into homes around the world. “I’ve been so lucky to be able to host the Rooster Stage for the last 6 years or so and invite friends and acts that I just love and think people would adore,” says Buddy Miller, “but since there’s no festival in the park this year, we’re doing the Rooster Stage from my studio with a lot of those same people.”

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass has always honored tradition, all the while looking to the future, with an annual lineup that features giants of the roots music world alongside up-and-coming artists. “San Francisco has always been a magical place, and to have a bluegrass festival in the park is heavy-duty to me, I love it,” says Buddy Miller. “It’s a really unique community, it’s different than any other festival I ever play,” he continues. “It feels so much like family. I don’t know how else to describe it but it’s sort of like going home, I look forward to that weekend every year.”

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, recognizes and is saddened by the heavy losses suffered this year with the passing of HSB artists John Prine, David Olney, Adam Schlesinger, and most recently, the tragic passing of Justin Townes Earle.

To support the music community in the wake of the  COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass launched the Hardly Strictly Music Relief Fund, a  $1.5 million charitable effort which seeks to recognize, appreciate, and care for the people who lend their creativity, heart, and hard work to the American roots music ecosystem in the Bay Area. The fund includes $450,000 for individual musicians’ relief and additional support for local music venues and their workers. For more information on the individual musicians grant opportunity visit actaonline.org/hardlystrictly. For more information on the venue grant opportunity, visit http://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com/2020/music-relief/

More information on the broadcast and lineup will be announced in the coming weeks at  www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com. To stay up-to-date, be sure to sign up for the newsletter, and follow HSB on social media. 

Keep Up With Hardly Strictly Bluegrass:

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