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Robert Plant, Kurt Vile Among Latest Artists Announced For Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Rock legend Robert Plant and lo-fi indie songwriter Kurt Vile were among the artists featured in the latest teaser medley providing clues to who will appear at this year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass website released its third teaser medley Tuesday. In addition to Plant and Vile, the medley featured clips of songs by annual Banjo Stage festival closer Emmylou Harris, folk duo Mandolin Orange, female Mariachi group Flor De Toloache, Oakland rock band Whiskerman, songwriter Mary Gauthier, funk and soul outfit Pimps of Joytime, LA folk band the Wild Reeds and country-soul singer Yola.

While Plant has made a number of unbilled appearances at the festival over the years since headlining the opening day of Hardly Strictly with Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett in 2008, this will mark the Led Zeppelin singer's first official appearance since he played with the Band of Joy in 2011.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is an annual free music festival that's been held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park each year since 2001. The festival has always been free thanks to its founder, venture capitalist Warren Hellman (who passed away in 2011).

The 2019 edition of HSB will be held from Friday, October 4 through Sunday, October 6. Other acts already announced for the festival include all-star indie-folk collaboration Calexico and Iron & Wine, Ukrainian folk quartet Dakhabrakha, garage-soul act Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, country tunesmith Hayes Carll, country-punk legends the Meat Puppets, desert-rock guitarist Mdou Moctar, soul siren Bettye LaVette, young country diva Margo Price, UK folk-rock group the Waterboys, legendary country singer Tanya Tucker and perennial HSB guests Steve Earle, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Buddy Miller and Hot Buttered Rum.

This year, the festival is also organizing a series of Hardly Strictly Out of the Park evening shows by a number of HSB artists performing at venues across the Bay Area that will raise $1 per ticket towards the organization Music in the Schools Today.

For more information on this year's festival, visit the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass website.

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