Had a great time at the free Not Strictly Bluegrass event, held at Golden Gate Park on Saturday (10/4/03). Saw a great set by Gillian Welch. Her accompanist David Rawling is wonderful to watch sculpt depth and expanse out of 3 chord tunes. The musical equivalent of marveling at a well executed landscape painting.

Their set overshot Tim O’Brien’s by about 20 minutes, but I managed to catch his group on 5 pieces. Really nice stuff as well, with the final piece, "Turn the Page Again",(from his recent CD, Traveler) a standout. I bought his latest CD because of that song.

He returned to the stage later that day as part of Steve Earle's acoustic group. Over his past several CDs, Earle's songwriting has produced some of the most intelligent, thoughtful material by a singer/songwriter. The selections he chose for the GGPark venue, pulled from the last 3-4 CDs, amplified that fact. It was a great end to a great day of music.

Also notable, was Allison Brown, a banjo player who fronts an instrumental group playing material more aligned with jazz than bluegrass. She has several CDs out. Don't know how this group comes across in that format, but was really cool to see live - perhaps because I did not know what to expect - or had stereotyped ideas about what music I would hear from a female banjo player.

As I write this (Sun. 10/5), there are still great acts performing - Emmylou, Willie Nelson, Hot Rize, Hazel Dickens, among others. But Jacque and I are headed out tonight to see the Charles Mingus Big Band in Luther Burbank Center.

Music yin & yang - the only thing better is playing some yourself.