The String Cheese Incident Welcome Peter Rowan, Tim O’Brien and AJ Lee at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
The String Cheese Incident
Over the weekend, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass returned to Golden Gate Park for its 25th annual staging. From Oct. 3-5, more than 70 artists from a vast array of genres and styles participated in San Francisco’s premier roots music festival, including Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Jeff Tweedy, Steve Earle and many more. Among the festival’s most memorable sets was a Sunday performance from The String Cheese Incident, who made good use of the event’s collaborative and community-oriented atmosphere by welcoming several surprise guests.
The String Cheese Incident stepped into the spotlight on Hardly Strictly’s final day with the 10-year regular inclusion “Sweet Spot,” then turned to the 2025 debut “Carnival.” The jamgrass pioneers moved into a selection of covers with a first-time treatment of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Hold On classic “Fishin’ In The Dark,” tapping rising bluegrass singer-songwriter and mandolinist AJ Lee and her fiddling Blue Summit bandmate Jan Purat to support the endeavor.
Lee and Purat remained onstage with SCI as the band lit into their debut of Bill Monroe’s standard “I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome,” led by the bluegrass legend Bill Monroe and also featuring Hot Rize multi-instrumentalist Tim O’Brien. Rowan continued to command the microphone for his own “Sweet Melinda,” which the String Cheese Incident has reliably covered since 1999, then O’Brien stepped to the helm for his original “Land’s End,” which has been part of the band’s repertoire since 1995.
Once their thrilling string of special guests departed from the stage, The String Cheese Incident kept the excitement high with their ‘Round the Wheel fan-favorite “Restless Wind.” The band built steam through “Just One Story” before merging into a set-closing rendition of “Hi Ho No Show.”
The String Cheese Incident’s Hardly Strictly set concluded their summer and early fall touring. The final date remaining on the band’s live calendar is a total of three headline performances at Suwannee Hulaween from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1. Find tickets and more information on the group at stringcheeseincident.com.
