The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival finally confirmed for us there’s an East Coast bias. Last weekend’s three-day event drew anywhere between 300,000 and 500,000 people to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, trotting out some heavy hitters like Jeff Tweedy, Bela Fleck, John Prine and Emmylou Harris. Yet HSB still fell off the radar of just about everybody we know. Blogbuzz? Not even.

But we’ve been hearing nothing but positive reviews since the 52-hour, 72-band orgiastic aural fiesta ended. And our man on the scene said this year’s seventh annual edition may have been the best. We couldn’t persuade him to jot down some notes before heading off to the upcoming Echo Project in Atlanta, so we’ll point you to some professional reviews and hit you with the best photo gallery of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass you’ll find on the world wide superweb.

The San Francisco Chronicle penned a decent review of the festival from start to finish, but as BeyondChron astutely points out, the Chronicle’s reporter failed to even mention Jeff Tweedy’s memorable 100-minute acoustic set on Friday night. The San Jose Mercury News provided three separate days of fantastic coverage, which you can check out here, here and here. That should be good enough to satiate you on the words…now let’s bring you the pictures.

We’re fortunate to bring you a full gallery from one of the best photographers working the scene. Dave Vann is a man among boys, and his work follows after the jump. He’ll be shooting for us down at Echo, so stay tuned this weekend for some live updates from the field. Onto the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass shots…

John Mellencamp welcomed everyone to the festival on Friday. Presumably he sang “Thiiiiis is noooootttttt bluegrass” and then told T-Bone Burnett to wipe that face off his head. Mellencamp joined Burnett for four songs, including the racially and politically charged “Jena.” Not coincidentally, Burnett produced that song for the Coug, as well as the album that debuts next Tuesday.

The lovely Neko Case joined the duo to open things up (click to enlarge):

HSB founder and billionaire investor Warren Hellman welcomed people to his festival, where he played a gig as lead banjo player — that’s throwin’ down a lot of cash to book yourself a gig, eh? Probably every man’s dream right there. Kudos bar to Hellman.

Wilco frontman and blogosphere idol Jeff Tweedy played a 100-minute set to a reported crowd of 10,000. As Randy Shaw noted in his review for BeyondChron, Tweedy played the set of the day, blowing T-Bone Burnett’s out of the water (not exactly a shocker): “Maybe [SF Chronicle reporter Joel] Selvin missed the Friday night shows, but anyone who saw both would recognize that Burnett’s show was forgettable while Tweedy presented a classic.“

For a guy that hates hippies so much, that beard’s getting a wee bit unruly. Maybe Steinbrenner needs to send the not-really alt-country, alt-country hero a note about the professionalism that comes with well-maintained facial hair:

One more of Tweedy, just because he’s a pretty cool dude:

Here’s a sweet shot of some sun, the crowd, and because it’s San Francisco, a fitting rainbow (click to enlarge (actually, click to enlarge all shots with more width than height)):

Renowned songwriter John Prine played a 1:30 pm set that really started Saturday’s festivities down the path of good times:

A view from the crowd: Hangin’ back during the John Prime set:

Maybe my most coveted act played on Saturday: Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs. Hornsby is one of my favorite musicians on the planet, and Skaggs compliments him incredibly. To be fair, Bruce does the same to Skaggs — they’re a perfect match.

As for the gig, let’s turn to Shay Quillen of the San Jose Mercury News: “The guys had just flown in from the east and were playing their first show together in months, but there were no signs of rust as they tore through Skaggs’ traditional fare (”Uncle Pen,” “Little Maggie”), Hornsby tunes (a “Valley Road” that works better than the original arrangement) and a dirty little ditty by Rick James (”Super Freak”).”

Two quick notes…firstly, if you haven’t seen or heard these two and the rest of the band play Super Freak, you’re really missing out — it’s as fantastic as a serious joke cover can be. Miss out no more: watch it here. Secondly, is it me or can Super Dave Osborne (aka Marty Funkhauser) and Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips stand in for these guys?

Hornsby and Skaggs > Bela Fleck & the Flecktones? This coulda been the best day of outdoor pickin’ music of all-time. I’d gush even more, but I’ve seen Bela too many times to count, and I’ve said enough:

Vic Wooten and Future Man: the coolest set of brothers known to man? I’d say yes, but that honor belongs to the wrestling Von Erichs. A close second, though.

Not to be outdone…let’s break out the synthax drumitar and see who’s cooler:

Bela staring off into the crowd…or maybe at that chick in the front row:

Take a bow, gents — 35 acts played five stages on Saturday, and the Mercury News reported Bela and the most professional band out there drew the biggest crowd:

These trees performed a killer version of Pink Floyd’s Animals on Saturday.

Okay, that was a lie. This ain’t no lie: Steve Earle played a helluva set, which would have delighted our buddy Pete over at Ickmusic, who wouldn’t stop giggling like a schoolgirl at ACL when he told me about meeting Earle.

Let’s go back to Quillen’s review: “Earle, who played last year with a bluegrass band, was joined during the latter part of his closing set by a hip-hop DJ. The sound symbolized Earle’s recent move from Nashville to New York, but except on the simple, repetitive ‘Satellite Radio,’ he would have been better off with a real live rhythm section or none at all. Wife Allison Moorer provided some nice harmonies, but the most eyebrow-raising guest spot was by anti-war activist and newly minted congressional candidate Sheehan, who came out at the end of Earle’s set to say, ‘Bring our troops home, impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney, and vote for me!’”

Los Lobos played on Saturday night, and if you’d like to download the show in FLAC form, etree’s got it up already. It’s chock full of covers, including Bertha, Not Fade Away, and Highway 61.

Some more from the Bela-following Los Lobos set:

And a shot of David Hidalgo, for good luck. I hear that’s good luck:

Former Drive By Trucker Jason Isbell played early on Sunday. After five years with the Truckers. the Alabaman left the band seemingly amicably and recently released Sirens of the Ditch.

We’ve written about Railroad Earth several times on this here rag, but the truth is, these guys are one of the most fun bands to see at an outdoors event. Todd Schaeffer has really put together an insanely talented modern bluegrass band since disbanding From Good Homes some years ago:

Del McCoury’s son Ronnie joined Railroad Earth on Sunday before his family band’s set. I’ll ask the same question I posed after seeing Ronnie down at ACL: “Doesn’t Ronnie kinda look like a combination of a skinny Oliver Platt and Sue from Swingers?”

Is there anything better than people climbing tall trees? The answer? Sure.

Man I really love the Del McCoury Band. The real DMB put on my favorite performance down at ACL, and I’m sure they treated the HSB festival to a similarly awesome show:

Watching Del is like watchin…I don’t know, but it’s cool:

As is tradition, Emmylou Harris and her band closed the show:

To cap off the weekend, Harris and the rest of the artists signed a banjo and presented it to Hellman, who’s seen here holding it up proudly.

I’ve been to San Francisco for the Bay to Breakers, but maybe I better start planning a 2008 trip to the left coast for next year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. I’m all for drunken upper middle class white kids gettin’ wasted onthe city’s streets, but maybe next year I’ll join some possibly drunken possibly stoned upper middle class white kids listening to some great music.

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