Our 3rd year of going to this amazing, free, three-day festival in SF (we missed 2006 while on our honeymoon). Derek even came out this year to join in the fun, it was great to have him around for the weekend of music.
Oakland's own MC Hammer started the festival off on Friday afternoon (apparently he now lives in Tracy). Yes, the same MC Hammer in your dusty cassette tape collection from 1991. I thought he'd be doing his gospel act, but nope - he was vintage MC Hammer. If you don't believe me, check here, here, or here. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass indeed. But fun for us in the 20s-30s crowd.
The main act on Friday was Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. They put on a really nice set to a huge crowd at the Banjo stage. Some good old Zep covers along with some of their new ones, and the "Down to the River" song from O Brother too, which was sung beautifully by Krauss. Plenty of videos online of them, too.
Gary Louris and Marc Olson from the Jayhawks
Del McCoury Band - a festival regular and one of my favorites. Here's Ronnie McCoury with some fiesty licks:
Closing the night on Saturday was Mickey Hart's Global Drum Project. Pretty cool, highly rhythmic, and featuring 3 other world-renowned percussionists, Derek and I enjoyed this a bunch. Could have done without Mickey's spacey ramblings about how rhythm is the lifeforce of the spirits, yadda yadda, however. Zakir Hussain is amazing on tabla, though.
Here's HSB benefactor Warren Hellman (banjo) with his band the Wronglers.
Red Wine came back this year from Genoa again! One of my favorites from 2007. Love their sound. Here's a bit of a New Orleans-Italian swing tune they played:
Alison Brown Quartet on Sunday. A bit of video here, if you want.
The Infamous Stringdusters, featuring our fellow Dartmouth alum Chris Pandolfi on Banjo.
A big crowd for the Waybacks at the Arrow Stage. Pretty different from when we saw them earlier this summer!
Gogol Bordello was pretty outrageous. They are described as Eastern European Gypsy Punk, and I guess that's pretty accurate.
Kate and Banjo had a good spot for hanging out and enjoying the day on Sunday.
Derek and I even played some ourselves at night! Apparently we were very focused right here. Derek is quite the guitar player nowadays.
Good times, can't wait for HSB 9!
8 comments:
Hey! I think I am into Eastern Euro Gypsy Punk! My new favorite music! Loved this post, Tom. It was fun watching all the video clips. Ahhh, but we had Woodstock...
Mom
Gosh. It seems like just yesterday you were blogging about how much you enjoyed Red Wine.
Time flies.
Sounds like a lot of fun! Sorry we missed you during our brief jaunt in the Bay Area. We were hardly there for 48 hours (due to my ICU schedule... I take the blame)-- and we actually flew in and out of Oakland. We thought of you-- hope to connect next time around!! We'll definitely be back in August for another wedding (in SF).
Hey, this is kinda cool: In
this video retrospective of Red Wine's 30 years of touring (since 1978!) see if you can spot anyone you know in the picture at 7:21. I'll give you a hint - it's from HSB 2007...
It's funny. On the rare occasion when I watch a YouTube video there have usually been hundreds of thousands of watchers. That Red Wine one had only had 278...
Thomas Dietrich in the red shirt with his back to us, right?
Mom, who can find her offspring blindfolded
So speaking of time-referencing YouTube videos, does 2:33 in remind you at all of the hotel we stayed at for your wedding?
Shoot. I forgot the link. Sorry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX8RmOqNq2s&fmt=18
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