Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the big free music festival, opens Friday in Golden Gate Park. As the name hints, it is bluegrass but also folk, funk, gospel and more. The first act booked for the first festival was Emmy Lou Harris. I noted that fourteen of the 72 acts this year are Black or Black-led. Two of those, Meklit Hadero and DaShawn Hickman also appeared in my Earthwise series in Palo Alto this year (and in DaShawn’s case, Santa Cruz). In comparison, 13 of my 33 shows so far this year featured Black headliners.Â
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 