Joan Baez

Lech Walesa Street: Jane Kim Ready for a Change

Last week, Supervisor David Campos told SF Weekly that he'd be open to starting a dialogue about whether to strip Lech Walesa's name off a city street.Supervisor Jane Kim is ready to move past all that. She wants Walesa gone. Step one, however, is figuring out who to call. Kim aide Ivy Lee says that ... More >>

Lech Walesa Street Hosts Transgender Clinic

David Campos: "We're not foreclosing" on possibility of changing title of street named for "one of my heroes." Blink and you'll miss it -- Lech Walesa Street is a small, gritty alley a generous heave from City Hall. For those with no desire to loiter here, it provides a brief glimpse into a painful ... More >>

The Late Warren Hellman's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Wisdom

This year will be the first Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival missing the presence of Warren Hellman, the late billionaire investment banker and banjo aficionado who founded it. Hellman passed away of complications from leukemia last December, at the age of 77. Back in 2010, just prior to Hardly ... More >>

Occupy This Album Is as Massive, Inconsistent, and Powerful as Occupy Itself

Remember all the hand-wringing last year over the so-called disappearance of protest music? As the Occupy movement hit its peak, capturing the attention of the country, commentators and older musicians were accusing contemporary artists of failing to grapple with the major struggles of their time in ... More >>

"Film Socialisme": Knotty, Difficult, and Perhaps Final Statement from Jean-Luc Goddard

Teatro ZinZanni's Five-Course Menu: Cheese and Fanfare

Mollie McWilliams​ It may be the most fanfare dinner presentation ever. Where else can confetti rain into your soup? Teatro ZinZanni's spectacle of jugglers, trapeze artists, and current host, 60's songstress Joan Baez, are the highlight, but beyond the glitzy costumes and constant entertain ... More >>

R.I.P. Hazel Dickens, American Legend, Feminist Folk Singer, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fixture

Jay BlakesbergHazel Dickens with Dolly Parton and Warren Hellman​Hazel Dickens, a bluegrass singer who played every Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival since the free event began in 2001, died today at age 75.Described by the Washington Post as "a living legend of American music," Dickens use ... More >>

Hallucinations Made Clear

Turns Out Songbirds Can't Fly: Joan Baez Falls Out of A Treehouse

Sleeping in trees is nice (yes, we've tried it!); falling out of them is not. Joan Baez discovered that songbirds can't fly earlier this week, when she fell 20 feet out of a treehouse at her Woodside (Peninsula) home, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Sharon Van Etten: Show Preview

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass: 10 Bands You Should Not Miss

​San Francisco's annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure novel. You could pick any number of themes to select the acts you want to see -- old punk pioneers, roots music up-and-comers, etc.-- and follow one through all three day's lineups. You coul ... More >>

Warren Hellman talks about Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Saturday is Record Store Day: Limited-Edition Releases, Rare In-Stores

  Record Store Day, that annual record-buying rite of spring that will rock independent music sellers across the world, hits again this Saturday, April 17. The event is a two-fold celebration: it's a chance for bands to put out small-run, limited-addition releases ... More >>

Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970

Hey DJ! Friday Q&A: El Kool Kyle of El Superrritmo

​If you've ever packed it into the Make-Out Room on a Saturday night, you have El Kool Kyle to thank for making you sweat. The El Superrritmo DJ goes crate digging across continents to bring back the best the barrios have to offer (and over Halloween weekend, you can take advantage of his sonic tr ... More >>

Les Nubians Chill Out in Stern Grove

EKAphotographySupa Sistas: Les Nubians Yesterday was definitely a day to be outdoors. With thermostats pointing north, inside was the last place anyone would want to be. And why would you want to, anyway? It was nice outside. Hot damn, summer in the city. And, unlike many a summery San Francisco da ... More >>

Cheap Musical Thrills

Give your ears — and your wallet— a summer treat.

Stern Grove Festival Announces Lineup

EKAphotographySeun Kuti performs at Stern Grove, 2008 The 72nd annual series of free summer concerts at Sigmund Stern Grove--one of San Francisco's best traditions--has been announced. As always, the lineup of artists spans a diverse range of genres and styles. Performers include Roberta Flack and D ... More >>

Pretty, Tough

Anti-War Smackdown: Baez vs. Sheehan on Whether Obama Deserves His Own Camp Casey

She's closed Camp Casey outside George W. Bush's Crawford ranch and recently lost her bid to unseat Nancy Pelosi in Congress. Now Cindy Sheehan is taking on Barack Obama, claiming the U.S. president is the same sort of warmonger as her previous foes. But no less an anti-war authority ... More >>

Richie Havens redefines folk over four decades

It's Only Rock 'n' Roll -- and It's MINE. S.F. Photographer Sues Bill Graham Archives to Get Back His Famed Shots

San Francisco photographer Jim Marshall, who snapped this iconic shot of Johnny Cash, has fired off the legal equivalent of the Man In Black's one-finger salute to the owner of Bill Graham Archives.After a man's shot his thousandth musician, you'd figure he'd see some time in court. That's the case ... More >>

Tangy Chicken and Wilted Puns

Teatro ZinZanni's Hail Caesar! is a slight improvement on the dinner theater theme.

Like a Complete Unknown

Folk Rocks

Weed Killer

You Spin Me

The ethnomusicologist and the flack tell a beguiling tale of influence

Cape of Good Hope

Protest Song

What Are Words For?

Busdriver

Fear of a Black Tangent

Hear This

Quirky lo-fi pop is On the Speakers; the Roots, the Coup, and more show up for the We the Planet Festival

Look Inward Voyager

L.A. buzz-band Midnight Movies stands out from the pack with its love of '60s rock and spiritual themes

OK Then

Free the Science!

A UCSF professor organizes a scientific boycott to protest apparent censorship of a study that suggests a link between working at IBM and dying of cancer

Reps Etc.

The Only Way From L.A. to S.F.

One definition of heaven: A week, a t-top Camaro, and the Pacific Coast Highway.

House of Tudor

Nuclear subs, gothic hip hop, and a world-traveled septet's motley musical influences

War on War Songs

Iraq and roll don't go together well when rockers protest

Reps Etc.

Play With Your Food

If you haven't seen it yet, now's the time to catch the world-class Teatro ZinZanni

Bob Dylan

Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue

Alice Stuart | Catherine Irwin

All the Good Times | Cut Yourself a Switch

SOMA Sayonara

Cafe Monk closes its doors

Holiday Highlights 2001

Holiday Event Lisitngs

The Old Old Thing

Two new collections from Berkeleyites Malvina Reynolds and Harry Smith argue for folk's historical authenticity. Whatever that is.

Deconstructing Hootie

After a lengthy hiatus, the old-timey folkies in the Muskrats want to revive the folk revival

Night & Day

Night + Day

Hear This

Letters