Great music, fewer crowds at opening day of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco

San Francisco investment banker Warren Hellman sat down with Bay Area concert booker Dawn Holliday in 2000 at Kokkari restaurant in the Financial District and floated an outlandish idea: staging a free bluegrass concert in Golden Gate Park headlined by Emmylou Harris and Hazel Dickens.

The city agreed, a few more musicians signed on, and the first concert, a daylong affair on two stages, drew a few thousand people to Strictly Bluegrass in 2001.

Fast-forward 15 years and the festival, no longer just bluegrass, has changed its name to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. It has grown to seven stages, about 100 bands over the course of three full days, and it attracts an estimated 750,000 people, including about 5,000 students for a kids’ program on Friday.

Among the big names this year are newcomers Jackson Browne and Wynonna Judd, who’ll join Hardly Strictly regulars Steve Earle and T-Bone Burnett. Other performers of note: Kris Kristofferson, Cyndi Lauper and Mavis Staples.

Despite the crowds, it still feels like a neighborhood festival, especially on Friday when it’s least crowded.

“This year I think we have the best Friday we’ll ever have in our lives,” said Holliday, booking agent for the festival. “All of Friday is really, really good. I would just shut down your business, set down everything, and go on Friday for sure.”

Music fans from around the world come to San Francisco for Hardly Strictly, but on Friday, Holliday keeps locals in mind.

“For Friday I try to think about San Francisco,” she said. “You can get out of work and go and hear Mavis Staples or Patty Griffin on your way home.”

Another Friday highlight will be Dave Alvin’s tribute to California songwriters including Merle Haggard, who died this year after spending much of his life in Bakersfield.

In a phone interview this month, Alvin said he would likely include songs by the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson and the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, a perfect fit for a free concert in Golden Gate Park.

Alvin, whose 2004 album “West of the West” covers songs by California musicians, said he keeps returning to the festival because “it’s fun” and the musicians are treated so well by the producers and fans.

It’s a venue where artists can try things out, he said. A few years ago he formed a new band, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women, just ahead of the festival.

“We had a little run-through backstage, and then we went out and played in front of like 10,000 people for the first time ever, and it was great,” Alvin said.

Musicians from different bands often play together at the festival. Alvin related a story from the early days of an unanticipated collaboration.

“The very first time I played there, I think it was the third festival when they were starting to transition from Strictly to Hardly, I showed up with my full band and we plugged in. There’s a great songwriter from Iowa named Greg Brown, and Greg was playing acoustic on some other stage when we kicked in.

“I forget what song we were doing, but apparently it was one that Greg knew because he said to his audience, ‘Screw it, I’m just going to start playing along.’ And I loved that. They’ve since spaced the stages out more so that doesn’t happen.”

Festival founder Hellman played banjo in a band called the Wronglers and last played at Hardly Strictly in 2011, less than three months before he died. In the wake of his death, many music fans wondered how long Hardly Strictly would continue.

Hellman “prefunded about five years of the festival,” said his son, Mick Hellman. “His theory on it was that at some point we (his four children) had to decide whether we were going to carry it forward or not.”

Mick Hellman said his father “gave us a choice, and the family decided several years back that this is extremely important to all of us,” so the concert should go on as long as the community and artists continue to embrace it.

Berkeley fiddler and singer Laurie Lewis, who has played at Hardly Strictly several times, said musicians will never tire of the festival.

“It’s like no other event,” she said. “It’s 100 percent free. There is no advertising anywhere for products. It’s just about the music. It’s a complete gift. That makes a huge difference.”

Lewis, a devoted bluegrass musician scheduled to play midday Saturday on the Banjo stage, loves that the festival has helped revive interest in this unique form of American music.

Among the bluegrass legends to take the festival’s stages have been Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley and Hazel Dickens. They’ve all passed now, but their music is kept alive as artists such as Lewis honor them with tributes at the festival.

“I love that there is at least some bluegrass presented there to such a huge audience,” said Lewis. “But I wish there were more. It’s moving further away from bluegrass, but it’s still a great festival.”

One of the joys of the festival is discovering new acts or bands you may not know. Hardly Strictly doesn’t showcase megastars like Paul McCartney, but over the years it has helped popularize under-appreciated acts such as soul singers Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley.

Whether it’s local heroes Boz Scaggs and Chris Isaak or country stars Mary Chapin Carpenter and Vince Gill, who will all perform this year, there’s something for everyone.

And it doesn’t cost a dime.

Michael Shapiro is the author of “A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration.” He writes about travel and entertainment for national magazines and The Press Democrat.