Miss Jo's San Francisco

THIS WEEKEND’S 9th ANNUAL HARDLY STRICKLY BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL IN SAN FRANCISCO’S GOLDEN GATE PARK was Miss Jo’s first.

Aside from a blue plate special of bluegrass, country and other musical acts, the setting alone on a beautiful Saturday got her out the door early and on the 44 Muni bus.

She may have married a jazz man, but from growing up in Texas and going to college in Missouri, Miss Jo still swoons when hearing acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle, and hearing them played outdoors is even better.

The free, three-day festival with 84 acts was all underwritten by San Francisco financier and banjo player Warren Hellman, whose family foundation recently gave $5 million to create a non-profit media company, the Bay Area News Project, to cover the many stories that go unreported in this region of 7.5 million people, where like elsewhere metro dailies are shells of their former selves.

As Miss Jo figures, if Hellman’s news project is anything like his Hardly Strickly festival, it will surely be a hit.

Festival stages were tucked in and around a meadow surrounded by the park’s mighty Monterrey pine and eucalyptus trees, which created amazing acoustics, particularly at the Rooster Stage settled in a glen with the audience fanning out on the ground, up the hill.

Arriving late morning, Miss Jo leaned against a pine tree and settled into her first act of the day, Marshall Crenshaw, whose vinyl from 30 years ago she recently parted with. Playing at the Rooster Stage, Crenshaw still swung, as did country/folk guitar players Guy Clark and Verlon Thompson who followed.

Then it was on to the Austin Lounge Lizards at the Arrow Stage in the meadow to boogie woogie to their honky-tonk social send ups with lyrics like “How big do you have to be to fail ?” Infused with political humor, Miss Jo wandered down the meadow to the Star Stage to catch the last couple tunes from Australian Roger Knox & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts and became a fan.

To top off her day: Austin roots-rock band Reckless Kelly, followed by Steve Martin’s banjo act and once home, one of Jeff’s famous eggplant pizzas.

Next year, Miss Jo will go two days to the festival, and hopefully catch Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountian Boys and Earl Scruggs.

Photos by Miss Jo. Top to bottom, the back of the Rooster Stage, with Guy Clark and Verlon Thompson; an inspiring lemonade stand; the Austin Lounge Lizards @ Arrow Stage in Golden Gate Park meadow; some bluegrass fans are metallic.