Announcing: The Battling Bands in NYC’s 2nd Annual Battle of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Bands

It’s on, y’all!

This February 19th, at 8pm The Steam Powered Hour will host our second annual Battle of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Bands at Theatre 80 in Manhattan’s East Village. Twelve top bluegrassish bands from New York and beyond will fight it out for the chance to perform at the 2011 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, California.

Select members of the music industry will be on hand to decide the winner. Our confirmed judges include Dawn Holliday of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival and Norm Parenteau of Slipshod Management, who represents one of the biggest acts in Americana music, Old Crow Medicine Show. In addition to the bands, a whole gaggle of New Yorker cartoonists will be on stage providing comic interludes. 

In no particular order, here are the 12 bands which have qualified to compete on February 19th: 

• The Defibulators
• The 2^nd Avenue Mountain Boys
• Baby Soda
• Alex Battles & The Whiskey rebellion
• Gangstagrass
• The Dive Bar Dukes
• Bluetastic Fangrass
• Michaela Anne Band
• Do It To Julia
• The Young Spokes
• Frankenpine
• Gold Top County Ramblers