Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Sunday Morning Soundcheck Set with Emmylou Harris
Banjo Stage, Hellman Hollow
Golden Gate Park, 50 Overlook Dr, San Francisco, CA 94122 USA
9:00 AM, Sunday, October 1, 2023

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

HSB23 Promo banner

• 11:00 – 11:40 AM   ♥   Sunday Soundcheck with Emmylou Harris

• 11:00 – 11:40 AM   ♦   Jon Langford & the Bright Shiners
• 12:10 – 12:55 PM   ♠   Eilen Jewell
• 1:35 – 2:35 PM   ♣   Chuck Prophet & the Mission Express
• 3:05 – 3:55 PM   ♥   Beth Orton
• 4:35 – 5:25 PM   ♦  M. Ward
• 6:00 – 7:00 PM   ♠   Mighty Poplar

[~9:00 AM] {performers out, starting to get plugged in and ready}

1. [9:11 AM] {acoustic guitar noodle}
   [9:14 AM] {dead air}
2. [9:15 AM] {bass noodling}
   [9:15 AM] {dead air}
   [9:17 AM] {piano noodling: Bemsha Swing; then bass, drums and violin on top, no one playing together}
   [9:20 AM] {drum noodle}
   [9:22 AM] {piano + drums noodle}
   [9:24 AM] {a little more piano noodling}
3. [9:25 AM] {applause as EH arrives onstage; EH greetings}
4. [9:27 AM] How High the Moon
   [9:30 AM] {applause, then EH off-mic banter with the band}
5. [9:31 AM] Miss the Mississippi and You
   [9:35 AM] {applause, then dead air}
   [9:36 AM] {EH now on acoustic guitar; pause for guitar adjustments; “chopping broccoli”}
6. [9:37 AM] {acoustic guitar noodling}
7. [9:39 AM] Sin City
   [9:42 AM] {applause; EH: brief Sin City Jacket story}
   [9:43 AM] {mandolin noodling; piano: Well You Needn't tease; dead air; aimless noodling}
   [9:44 AM] {dead air; EH talking off mic; bass resumes noodling}
   [9:45 AM] {more noodling}
8. [9:45 AM] Long May You Run
   [9:48 AM] {applause}
   [9:49 AM] {EH complaining about the guitar mix; pause to try and get that right}
   [9:49 AM] {EH: “We're gonna try something that I've never played before”}
9. [9:50 AM] The Sweetheart of the Rodeo
   [9:53 AM] {applause; dead air}
10. [9:54 AM] {violin and bass noodling}
11. [9:54 AM] Montana Cowgirl
    [9:57 AM] {applause}
12. [9:57 AM] Casey's Last Ride
    [10:01 AM] {aborts with EH comments to the band; dead air (EH off-mic, barely audible); guitar noodling}
    [10:02 AM] {dead air}
13. [10:02 AM] My Songbird
    [10:04 AM] {dead air}
    [10:04 AM] {EH: “We get to do one more; Anyone here love Lucinda Williams?”}
14. [10:06 AM] Sweet Old World
    [10:10 AM] {final applause}
    [10:11 AM] {done}

• Chris Donohue: bass, contrabass, harmony vox;
• Emmylou Harris: acoustic guitar, vox;
• Eamon McLoughlin: violin, mandolin, harmony vox;
• Bryan Owings: drums; others TBD: keyboard & accordion; guitar.

Miraculously, we get out the door on time this morning, and the early drive over to SF is easy peasy. Unfortunately, as I'm taking the 101 split north, Ting realized she's left her purse and camera at home. Ouch! We continue on to the park, where I get out while Ting takes the wheel for her recovery mission. Hopefully an easy round trip!

It's still early, so I arrive at the JFK gate before they open and squish myself into line with friends. Seems like I should have brought my tarp today, dang! Made another blunder when I didn't immediately decamp for Rooster in order to set up space there. Ah well, them's the breaks: some times you take a hard one on the chin.

I'm happy to be in a great spot to listen to this set, but reminiscing, I realize that I hardly paid attention to what was happening on stage. I kinda think that Chris played contrabass the whole time, but he was playing electric bass yesterday with Buddy Miller, so maybe I missed that? Similarly, I didn't note anything about Eamon switching back and forth between violin and mandolin this morning. Heck, maybe he even played a little viola, mandola, or acoustic guitar? I must have been entranced by Emmylou! And like an idiot, I didn't make note of the players when she introduced them. Sheesh. Must have been running on fumes or something! I'm pretty sure that it was the same guys who backed Buddy yesterday…

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!