THROUGH THE LENS: The Scene and Sounds From Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2023

Spurred on by roots music icon Hazel Dickens, investment banker Warren Hellman put on the first Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2001 as a gift to the citizens of San Francisco. According to an in memoriam tribute on the HSB website, Hellman “called the bluegrass gathering a ‘selfish gift,’ one that he, the musicians and the community could all enjoy.”

“How could you have more fun than that?” he mused in a 2006 Forbes interview. “What the hell is money for if it isn’t for something like that?”

To ensure that HSB would always concentrate on the music and remain free to its audience, Hellman created an endowment to continue to fund it after his passing, which came in 2011. While various commercial interests frequently lobbied to sponsor the event, Hellman always turned them down.

The first HSB was a single-day affair with eight acts in Golden Gate Park; it has since expanded to include six stages over three days, this year Sept. 29-Oct. 1. This year’s HSB presented 75 acts to an average daily audience of 100,000 fans in the park.

Originally focused only on bluegrass music — Hellman played the banjo — it soon expanded to include other branches of roots music. The fest’s organizers view music as having a healing power. As stated on its website, HSB is “a place and a community where people gather in October to share the special magic, love, and joy that only music brings. We believe this positive force, paired with concerted effort towards racial justice, has power to repair the wounds, pains, fears and fractures that divide us.”

California photographer Holly Horn was in attendance this year and graciously shared her photos with us. Holly’s experience was incredible. As she told me, “the hardest part of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is choosing who to listen to. There were so many phenomenal artists I wasn’t able to make it to, but also many that I was, though a bit out of breath at times.”

Her highlights included newer (to her) artists Taylor McCall, Thee Sacred Souls, and Bombino, and she caught some of her personal favorites as well, including The Teskey Brothers, Valerie June, and Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit.

“Walking back to my car with the euphony of happy people, the fragrance of eucalyptus hanging in the air, I reflected in amazement at the weekend I’d experienced,” she says.

Adding my two cents, I would have been excited to see, first and foremost, the legendary Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas (!), along with Syd Straw (part of Anton Fier’s loose ’80s and ’90s conglomerate The Golden Palominos), John Doe of  X (the band, not the social media fiasco), and The Third Mind featuring Dave Alvin and Jesse Sykes.

Photos of all of these highlights, and many more, are included in the gallery below.

Click on any of the photos below to view the gallery as a full-size slideshow.