There is a great article on NPR about Hardly Strictly Blugrass Festival (complete with streaming audio) and how it got its start. Billionare investment banker (and claw hammer banjo player) Warren Hellman started the festival 6 years ago as a way to bring some free music to his home city of San Francisco in Golden Gate Park. Last year the festival entertained 300,000 people. One thing I found interesting in the article is that the festival was originally called “Strictly Bluegrass” but when Emmylou Harris played it with her band Spyboy who had a New Orleans sound, Hellman renamed the festival “Hardly Strictly Bluegrass”. Check it out!
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