Austin City Limits Features Hardly Strictly Bluegrass This Week

The signature concert series of PBS takes a trip outside Austin’s city limits this February with a special presentation of a unique San Francisco music festival. Co-produced by KQED Public Television and LickonaVision, producers of Austin City Limits, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is a one-hour production that captures the music, spirit and community of this treasured annual event.
The festival celebrates the current resurgence of bluegrass music with fans of all ages. Yet as its name suggests, the festival includes music and performers that go far beyond bluegrass. Every summer since 2001, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, which is free to the public, draws hundreds of thousands of music-lovers to the meadows of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park to hear music that includes traditional bluegrass, alternative country, and many performers who cross the standard genre lines. The 2007 festival drew an estimated 500,000 fans.

Shot entirely in high definition, the production features 20 acts on multiple stages, from musical legends to a whole new generation of bluegrass performers and more. Earl Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," of Bonnie and Clyde fame, opens the show and is followed by Doc Watson, the renowned guitar player from North Carolina. Highlights of the production also include the innovative banjo styling of Bela Fleck, the infectious singing of Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby, and the searing vocals of Gillian Welch and Emmylou Harris.

Recorded: October 6-7, 2007

* EARL SCRUGGS: "FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREAKDOWN"
* DOC WATSON: "DEEP RIVER BLUES"
* MEDLEY:
* DAVID GRISMAN BLUEGRASS EXPERIENCE: "BLUEGRASS STOMP"
* ALISON BROWN QUARTET: 'MAGNIFICENT SEVEN"
* BELA FLECK AND THE FLECKTONES: "STOMPING GROUNDS"
* RICKY SKAGGS & KENTUCKY THUNDER with BRUCE HORNSBY: "DREADED SPOON"
* MEDLEY:
* GUY CLARK: "TEXAS 1947"
* CHRIS SMITHER: "LEAVE THE LIGHT ON"
* TEDDY THOMPSON: "I WISH IT WAS OVER"
* GILLIAN WELCH: "LOOK AT MISS OHIO"
* DEL MCCOURY BAND: " BLUEGRASS BREAKDOWN
* MEDLEY:
* HAZEL DICKENS: "AMERICA'S POOR"
* CHARLIE LOUVIN: "GREAT ATOMIC POWER"
* JIM LAUDERDALE:"LOST IN THE LONESOME PINES"
* MEDLEY:
* JORMA KAUKONEN: "SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES"
* SUBDUDES: "FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH"
* DAVE ALVIN & THE GUILTY MEN: "DRY RIVER"
* ROBERT EARL KEEN: "AMARILLO HIGHWAY"
* STEVE EARLE & ALISON MOORER: "DAYS AREN'T LONG ENOUGH"
* EMMYLOU HARRIS: "GET UP JOHN"

Check local listings for broadcast times in your area.