the eight annual (and entirely free) hardly strictly bluegrass festival kicked off this evening with performances by m.c. hammer and allison krauss & robert plant, among others. if you missed it - v. possible considering the employed-unfriendly 5:15p headliner start time - fret not, as there's still rather quite a lot of excellent music to come tomorrow and sunday, including all-time a.g. favorites sam beam, greg brown & will oldham.

you can find the full schedule here, at the official h.s.b. website, along with loads of helpful information for spending your day roaming the park.

here's a preview of some of the acts we're planning our days around:

saturday
patty griffin - stolen car (springsteen cover)

joe purdy - can't get it right today

steve earle - i thought you should know


sunday
bonnie prince billy - new partner (live)

iron & wine - sodom, south georgia (live)

greg brown - hey baby hey

gogol bordello - through the roof and underground

loudon wainwright III - daughter