The Nitty Gritty Filth Band wowed its Bay Space followers — maybe for the final time ever in live performance — on opening day of the 2025 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Pageant in San Francisco.
Sure, the Lengthy Seashore nation act has introduced its intention to retire from touring — after some 60 years of life on the highway — every time its present farewell trek involves an finish. If these musicians maintain true to their acknowledged intentions then that implies that this beloved free pageant in Golden Gate Park very probably hosted the final ever Nitty Gritty Filth Band present within the Bay Space.
This (possible) NGDB finale was one of many huge highlights of Day 1 (Friday) of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass pageant, which is celebrating its twenty fifth anniversary this 12 months and ranks as the most important music occasion within the Bay Space. Different extremely anticipated names on Day 1 invoice included Shawn Colvin, Margo Value, Rodney Crowell, The Battle and Treaty, Margaret Glaspy, ALO, Reverend Horton Warmth and plenty of others performing throughout a number of phases in entrance of tens of hundreds of music lovers.
This pageant’s silver anniversary run truly kicked-off on Thursday with a tribute to Emmylou Harris, the nation music legend who has been on the lineup for all 25 years of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. The three-hour tribute present occurred at The Masonic in San Francisco and featured lots of the identical artists — together with The Battle & Treaty, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams and Rodney Crowell — acting at Golden Gate Park.
Margaret Glaspy performs on the Arrow stage in the course of the twenty fifth anniversary of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass pageant at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
Blessed with sunny, heat climate all through a lot of Day 1, festival-goers as soon as once more did the same old HSB issues on Friday — tossed frisbees round, performed with their canines, shared picnics with pals and, after all, listened to ridiculous quantities of high quality music freed from cost.
All people had their favorites on the day, however its uncertain that anybody delivered the products higher than the Nitty Gritty Filth Band did on the Swan Stage.
The group — which continues to be led by Jeff Hanna, who based the Nitty Gritty Filth Band in 1966 — sounded nice because it rolled out a beautiful model of Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country” after which dusted off its greatest pop hit, the Jerry Jeff Walker-penned “Mr. Bojangles.”
The Nitty Gritty Filth Band closed up its set — manner too quickly for followers’ tastes — with an incredible one-two-punch combo of the gospel traditional “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and The Band’s mighty “The Weight.”
Shawn Colvin performs within the Rooster stage in the course of the twenty fifth anniversary of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass pageant at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
Colvin additionally did properly together with her set on the Rooster Stage, displaying the sort of expertise and savvy on each vocals and guitar that made her a large folk-pop star again within the ’90s.
Colvin sang and strummed her manner via a variety of favorites, together with “Killing the Blues,” “Trouble” and “Diamond in the Rough.” Not surprisingly, nonetheless, the South Dakota native garnered the most important crowd response when she turned to the1997 Grammy winner “Sunny Came Home,” though others within the viewers clearly most popular the haunting quiet desperation of “Shotgun Down the Avalanche” that served as a better.
Margo Value performs within the Banjo stage in the course of the twenty fifth anniversary of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass pageant at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
Margo Value, who made an enormous impression in the course of the Emmylou Harris tribute live performance held one night time earlier, additionally made a mark together with her riveting set of cool nation (and countryfied) tunes on the large Banjo Stage. She’d showcase a variety of songs from her most up-to-date album — this 12 months’s “Hard Headed Woman” — one among which (“Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down”) was carried out with Rodney Crowell, who carried out his personal Banjo Stage set earlier within the day.
Value additionally made the smart determination to tip her hat to one of many Bay Space’s all-time music greats as she closed her set with Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz.”
The three-day Hardly Strictly Bluegrass pageant, which was based in 2001 by billionaire philanthropist/music lover Warren Hellman, continues via Sunday with such acts as Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Lucinda Williams, String Cheese Incident and, after all, Emmylou Harris nonetheless set to carry out. For extra data, go to hardlystrictlybluegrass.com.
Margo Value performs within the Banjo stage in the course of the twenty fifth anniversary of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass pageant at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
The Battle and Treaty lead singer performs within the Rooster stage in the course of the twenty fifth anniversary of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass pageant at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
