Warren Hellman

Steve Earle Will Perform for Free at the Warren Hellman Museum Today

Country-folk legend and preeminent beard spokesman Steve Earle has a new album, The Low Highway, out now. Local fans may know that there's a song on the new album called "Warren Hellman's Banjo" -- a backwoodsy tribute to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival founder Warren Hellman. Earle is in San Fr ... More >>

Your Guide to the WeekEnd of the World

The Transitpocalypse is upon us, and we have all prepared as much as we possibly can. Once the chaos descends, though, you'll want to have your resources all near at hand, whether they be food, apps, directions, mind-altering substances, or bingo.Here, then, we present all of SF Weekly's coverage of ... 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 >>

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012: The Full, Final Lineup Is Gigantic

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is the music festival that just won't stop growing. We've posted pieces of the lineup as they've become public -- and thought we'd seen most of it -- but it turns out there have been even more artists added. This week, though, organizers promise that they've finally release ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

R.I.P. Earl Scruggs, Banjo Legend and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Regular

Earl Scruggs, the North Carolina-born banjo legend who was a regular at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival, died at a Nashville hospital this morning, according to news reports. He was 88. Known as part of a seminal duo with guitarist and mandolin player Lester Flatt (who died ... More >>

America's Cup: Everyone Lowers Their Standards

Barring unforeseen circumstances -- Chris Daly, a rain slicker, and a longshoreman's hook -- the Board of Supervisors today will give its blessing to the pared back America's Cup plan. This supes probably would have approved the Cup's glitzy prior iteration, which would have cost the city up to $136 ... More >>

Live Review, 2/19/12: Warren Hellman Public Celebration Brings Emmylou Harris, Old Crow Medicine Show and More to Ocean Beach

Old Crow Medicine Show at the Warren Hellman public celebration.​ Warren Hellman Public Celebration February 19, 2012 Ocean Beach Better than: Watching the live stream at home on your laptop. Some of the nation's top roots musicians gathered together yesterday with Bay Area music fans to cel ... More >>

Warren Hellman Tribute Concert Planned for Feb. 19 at Ocean Beach

Some weeks ago, we told you about a concert planned to honor the memory of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass founder Warren Hellman, who passed away in December. The show will feature performances by Emmylou Harris, Robert Earl Keen, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, and others. And now, a location for the event ... More >>

Why The Bay Citizen Can't Hack It Alone Anymore

​The Bay Citizen was funded with a $5 million gift from Warren Hellman to be an independent news organization in the Bay Area. But after two years in operation, it's being taken over by the Center for Investigative Reporting.How did this happen? Their billionaire died It turns out there actually ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

Warren Hellman Tribute Concert Will Feature Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Gillian Welch, and More

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass founder Warren Hellman passed away at the end of last year, but the sprawling free music festival he started will continue. And on Feb. 19, Hellman's family and the festival's organizers will hold a sort of mini-Hardly Strictly as a tribute to Hellman. The bill -- which we' ... More >>

Wear Warren Hellman's Shirt

Hellman familyYes, I'll hold...​Over the past month, photographs of departed San Francisco macher Warren Hellman have been fairly ubiquitous. The financier and philanthropist's sartorial sense had been described as "Financial District Hobo" -- and then there's this. But the photo illustrating this ... More >>

Better, Later, and on the Air: A Wish list for S.F. Music in 2012

One Last Spin: A Look Back at the Year in Bay Area Music

Warren Hellman, Incidental Banjo Player

Over the past week, photos of Warren Hellman toting a banjo were pretty much ubiquitous. The departed billionaire was a financial titan and a political force in this city -- but, yes, it was the banjo, perhaps the happiest of musical instruments, that seemed to define his public persona (and his pri ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

Warren Hellman, Founder of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Dies

RIP Warren Hellman ​The indelible Warren Hellman, founder of the popular Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival and the Bay Citizen, has died. His family told reporters that the 77-year-old San Francisco icon died Sunday from complications of leukemia. Public services are planned for Wednesday at Cong ... More >>

Warren Hellman "Stunned and Thrilled" City Named Meadow After Him

Joyce GoldschmidThe namesake for "Hellman Hollow"​The wheels of government tend to turn slowly. So the rapidity with which the notion of renaming Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow after Warren Hellman became a reality -- two weeks from conception to Board of Supervisors-approved, effective-immedi ... More >>

R.I.P. Warren Hellman, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Founder and Eccentric Banjo Player

Jay BlakesbergWarren Hellman at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass​ Warren Hellman, the billionaire banjo-picker and eccentric who founded the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival, lost his battle with leukemia on Sunday. He was 77. Hellman was a successful investment banker a beloved philant ... More >>

List: How Will S.F. Cope with State Spending Cuts?

The good ol' days are gone ​Gov. Jerry Brown recently announced another $1 billion in state spending cuts. How will S.F. cope? We'll have to cut back 15 percent on jokes about Ed Lee's mustache. Homeless people will have to put up with bupkis instead of crapola. The Recreation and Parks d ... More >>

Set Times for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and Treasure Island Music Festival Are Out Now

The crowd at Hardly Strictly​ Hey everyone, it's set-time-o'-clock: The point at which you can start planning which acts you'll see (along with every other mobile human on the planet) at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (Sept. 30 to Oct. 2) and Treasure Island Music Festival (Oct. 15 and 16). Often ... More >>

It's Official: The Bay Citizen Unionizes

Hellman's Frankenstein Monster ​Just a year after Warren Hellman launched The Bay Citizen, the editorial newsroom decided to officially unionize. On May 26, The Bay Citizen signed union cards indicating they want to join the Pacific Media Workers Guild, Local 39521 of The Newspaper Guild-Communica ... 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 >>

Watch Billionaire Warren Hellman Play the Banjo at Slim's This Weekend

The Wronglers, with Warren Hellman on banjo.​Perhaps it's unfortunate for Warren Hellman, the wealthy San Franciscan who puts on the free, three-day Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival in Golden Gate Park every year, that the words "billionaire" and "banjo" begin with the same big, beautiful ... More >>

Nine solutions to San Francisco's pension crisis

Warren Hellman Leaves Prop. B Campaign -- Shocks Prop. B Backers

Joyce GoldschmidWarren Hellman has moved on to Plan B...​No obligation for campaign to return Hellman's $50KThe No on Proposition B camp -- the union-backed assault on the measure that would mandate workers up their pension and health care contributions -- released a shocker today. An e-mail hit S ... More >>

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Day 1: This Is About Coming Together

​Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Day 1Oct. 2, 2010 @ Golden Gate ParkBetter than: chasing a fox out the hen house.  San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
festival sings America. The annual outdoor concert is about coming together:
scores of rootsy musicians, a half-million or more conc ... More >>

Warren Hellman's Hebrew Jacket Explained

Jim HerdDefinitely not last year's model...​When Elvis Costello's in town, people can be forgiven for missing some peripheral details and focusing on the artist formerly known as Declan McManus. That being said, it was hard to miss Hardly Strictly Bluegrass impresario Warren Hellman's Semitic Serg ... More >>

So What Did Warren Hellman's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Jacket Say?

Jim HerdIt ain't last year's model...​Maybe you saw the rather wild, sequined jacket that the free-music-festival-wearing Warren Hellman was wearing at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this weekend.Maybe you thought it looked cool, and wondered what exactly the Hebrew writing on the back meant.Maybe you' ... More >>

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

In Print: What Warren Hellman Pays for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Adam Stephens' Solo Debut

Adam Stephens​In SF Weekly's print music section this week:Hardly Strictly Bluegrass founder (and banjo picker) Warren Hellman tell us what his 10-year-old free festival really costs, why it didn't end up moving to Oakland, and what the annual shindig means to him: "I wonder sometimes how the comm ... More >>

Bay Citizen, Built on Barely Paid Labor, Runs Story Glorifying Unpaid Labor

Pick that damn arugula , intern!​The Bay Citizen, the nonprofit news organization launched with much fanfare May 26 by local investment banker Warren Hellman, has earned ample flack for its offer to pay $25 per story to local bloggers.But we learned today from the online newspaper that some employ ... More >>

Everyone Sing the Bay Area Media Songs!

Joyce GoldschmidGet out your banjo, Warren, and sing the company song!​On May 26, financier Warren Hellman invited throngs of hangers-on to a Great American Music Hall bash to celebrate the launch of the Bay Citizen, the news nonprofit he tossed $5 million.The highlight, apparently, was an offici ... More >>

Should Sugar Daddies Save Journalism? Bay Area News Project Editor Weighs In -- Again

​As journalist Jim Barnett pointed out earlier today, Bay Area News Project's new editor-in-chief, Jonathan Weber, wasn't always a fan of nonprofit news-gathering. In fact, just last year, Weber said that the idea that nonprofits were the future of journalism was a "cop-out." Weber, then helming t ... More >>

The Biggest Loser: Chron's Circulation Drops More Than Other Major Dailies

​Making fun of the Chronicle isn't as enjoyable as it used to be. Writing some snarky bit about our troubled hometown paper these days is like laughing at a blind guy who walks into a door -- on his way to chemotherapy. It feels like picking on someone less fortunate than yourself. Like writin ... More >>

List: Saving journalism

Frank Chu: Hardest Working Proselytizer in Show Business Recruits Bluegrass Fans

​Warren Hellman may have fancied himself opening up America's hearts to music with his bigger-than-ever, three-day Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. He also helped famed San Francisco eccentric Frank Chu open city visitors' minds to opaque theories about an alleged intergalactic political co ... More >>

Bluegrass Festival Backer Hellman Sifts Through Ruins of Global Collapse Seeking Capital Sufficient To Bring Back Emmylou Harris

Joyce GoldschmidWarren Hellman, banjo messiah? With just a half-year to go before Golden Gate Park's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, free-concert backer Warren Hellman is combing the wreckage of the global financial collapse, seeking to augment the fortune that keeps his massive three-day music ... More >>

Carolina Chocolate Drops: A Treat from S.F.'s Bluegrass & Old-Time Fest

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Pools Together Roots Music Enthusiasts

Bluegrass Philanthropy

Warren Hellman takes S.F.'s free roots music festival into its sixth year

Best View

The Hellman Challenge

There's only one way to settle the de Young parking garage brouhaha: a footrace between a steely billionaire and a PR-savvy columnist

Wealth of Advice

What the Hellman Is Going on Here?

UCSF Stanford finances hit the rocks

Cothran

Unspun