This year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival (“HSBG”) in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park was—as usual, and as expected—a joyous and magical celebration for young and old, family and friends, musicians and music fans.

Old and In the Way were (ironically) mostly not old – and certainly not at all in anyone’s way! – when they gathered in 1973 to play about 50 live shows. Fiddler Vassar Clements, born in 1928 and having joined Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys at 21, was still under 50. The other members of OAITW were only about 30 at the time, give or take a few years.

Venerable Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir led an epic spectacular on July 24, overseeing an ensemble performance at the legendary Greek Theatre on the University of California Berkeley campus.

In an ongoing effort to celebrate the musical accomplishments, extraordinary talent, community spirit, and creative soul of artists, Whippoorwill Arts is gearing up for the first-ever virtual Whippoorwill Arts Festival this August 29th and 30th.

One morning near the end of August, Todd Snider was relaxing with a visitor on the back porch of his house just outside Nashville, drinking coffee and shooting the breeze while his dog, Cowboy Jim, took a nap nearby. After awhile, Snider said to his guest, “I’ve got an album’s worth of songs, and I think the songs are telling me to make a folk record.”

Truly one of America’s most influential and astute folk artists of all time, John Prine's prolific songbook is filled with hundreds of clever country-folk tunes both humorous and poignant. He performed about two dozen of those songs on May 23 to the visible delight of the sold-out crowd inside Folsom, California’s, Harris Center for the Arts.

Bluegrass singer/songwriter Peter Rowan makes his way around the whole United States performing intimate gigs and festival headliners on a regular basis. Rowan is generally touring with multiple different projects at once and in the studio. He’s released four original albums since 2010 including with his bluegrass band, his Twang an’ Groove project and solo. The bluegrass icon began his career in 1965 when he was hired by founding father of bluegrass Bill Monroe into his Bluegrass Boys band.