REPORT

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

Photos by Dave Guarente

Saturday, Oct. 7 was one of those rare opportunities to see a who's who of banjo players and a collection of great bands and musicians in one day and all on the same stage.

At Speedway Meadows in San Francisco's picturesque Golden Gate Park, Warren Hellman treated the public to the free 6th Annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. The Banjo Stage, just one of five stages featured these players: Alan O'Bryant (Nashville Bluegrass Band), Alison Brown (the Alison Brown Quartet with special guest, Joe Craven), Bill Evans, Tony Trischka and Alan Munde (Banjo Extravaganza), and Earl Scruggs.

Entering Golden Gate Park by a pathway leading to 25th Avenue's extension into that Park, John F. Kennedy Avenue, I was struck by the attractiveness of the decorative cloth covering the stages and similar banners. The trees, foliage and green grass, well maintained, made this an exceptionally pleasant environment on a gorgeous fall day. I arrived just in time for the first performance by the Nashville Bluegrass Band one of the premier bands in the country. M.C.' d by Alan O' Bryant. Natural and unaffected, with a distinctive, tasteful banjo style, O' Bryant' s and the band' s performances are always a special treat.

Alison Brown' s innovative, bristling banjo creations with keyboard, drums and the great Joe Craven and his distinctive mandolin and percussional excursions provided the contemporary sounds pushing the envelope.

Alan Munde, Bill Evans and Tony Trischka played trios, solos and duets as Banjo Extravaganza, each contributing their creative, moving individual banjo voices. All rock solid players, Alan' s banjo was the more forceful of the three, clear, and articulate. Tony' s Third String and First String, played on those strings only was a fascinating exploration reminiscent of Celtic tenor banjo stylings.

I walked over to the Star Stage to catch the latter part of the Stairwell Sister' s Old Time music set. Evie Laden' s percussive clawhammer playing, fiddle by Stephanie Prausnitz, Lisa Berman on dobro highlighted the band' s versatile, joyful, danceable renditions. Pure fun.

Earl Scruggs' set was an exercise in banjo minimalism. Earl' s beloved tunes and technique shined forth, despite technical difficulties with miking the banjo, problems with his fifth string spike, and a strange tone projecting through the sound system. Earl had a bad cold, and played perhaps 30% of the time in the midst of phenomenal guitar by Bryan Sutton, Gary Scruggs' electric bass, an electric guitarist who doubled on mandolin, a fine fiddler, and Rob Ickes on dobro.

It was a fine day to hear the banjo.