I describe the festival frequently as the world’s most selfish gift. It’s a fantastically selfish gift, but it is a gift. There are hundreds of thousands of people there who are appreciating it. Just being able to do something that is completely not commercial, that is pure, hopefully, pleasure for the participants–to create a surrounding where the musicians and professionals like it as much as the crowd does. How could you have more fun than that? What the hell is money for if it isn’t for something like that?

(Warren Hellman to Forbes in 2006)

What do you say about an eccentric billionaire who personally bankrolled the world’s greatest bluegrass festival as a gift to roots music and the city of San Francisco? This October marked ten years of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and now it will outlast even its creator (who passed away at 77 yesterday of complications from leukemia) thanks to an endowment he created to ensure its future.

That’s not all Warren Hellman did, of course. For a fuller accounting of his life, you can read the pieces that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Bay Citizen.

Here’s a nice 2010 segment on Hellman and Hardly Strictly by the San Francisco Arts Commission.

While all three albums will be in serious contention for many Best of 2011 lists, the odds-on favorite is the Pistol Annies’ Hell on Heels, which benefits from Lambert’s big-name exposure but succeeds on the basis of killer vocal interplay and smart, frank songwriting from a consistent and relatable perspective. For those already acquainted with Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe, the big surprise will be Angaleena Presley, whose lighter twang capably carries much of the album.

Sweeney might as well be an honorary Annie, though without the luxury of a Lambert-style side project her sophomore album is forced to split the difference between the throwback country heard on Hell on Heels — or Sweeney’s own indie album Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame — and the commercial sound more likely to burn up the charts (cf. “Baggage Claim” off of Lambert’s rocked-up Four the Record, out November 1). While Sweeney’s hard twang keeps everything grounded firmly in traditional country, the odd misstep like “Helluva Heart” leaves a bit of a compromised aftertaste. In a crowded release day, Concrete also loses a bit of its luster for the fact that half of it has already been heard as a Sunny Sweeney EP released earlier in the year. No fault of Sweeney’s, certainly, but all part of the game she’s trying to play. If it works, she’ll join Lambert and Swift as one of the sharpest female singer-songwriters on country radio. Here’s hoping.

Connie Smith is long past the games. On her first album in 13 years, she sings straight-up classic country music like a woman still in the thick of her 1960s heyday, her voice barely diminished in the intervening 40+ years. Any of today’s stars would be lucky to age as gracefully.

Besides all the new releases, there’s also the fact that Elizabeth Cook actually got to sit down on David Letterman’s couch and talk to him on last night’s show, a rare honor for a visiting musician who isn’t Paul McCartney or Bono. If you didn’t catch the always-charming Ms. Cook on The Late Show, skip ahead to about the 28-minute mark of the full episode posted on the CBS site.

This year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is set for the weekend of September 30 through October 2 at Golden Gate Park. What makes this festival different from others around the country is (a) that it features just about all the big names you’d want to see on several stages over the course of three days and (b) that it’s 100% free to anyone who cares to attend, the whole bill footed by one exceptionally generous bluegrass-loving investment banker. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the location is about as scenic as they come.

Much of this year’s lineup has just been posted on the event website, with more acts yet to be announced. Here’s the posted roster with some of (what I judge to be) the most notable acts in bold.

• A.A. Bondy
• Abigail Washburn
• Alison Brown Quartet
• AllofaSudden
• The Band of Heathens
• Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer
• The Belle Brigade
• Bill Kirchen
• Bill Orcutt
• Blame Sally
• The Blind Boys of Alabama
• Bob Mould
• Bright Eyes
• Broken Social Scene
• Buckethead
• Buddy Miller
• Cass McCombs
• Charlie Musselwhite
• Chris Isaak
• The Civil Wars
• Conspiracy of Beards
• Dark Star Orchestra
• David Bromberg Quartet
• The Del McCoury Band & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
• The Devil Makes Three
• DeVotchKa
• Dive Bar Dukes
• Dr. John & the Lower 911
• Dry Branch Fire Squad
• Earl Scruggs
• Elbow
• Emmylou Harris
• The Felice Brothers
• Fitz & the Tantrums
• The Flatlanders
• Frank Fairfield
• Gillian Welch
• Gomez
• Greensky Bluegrass
• Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson
• Hot Buttered Rum
• Irma Thomas
• Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
• The Jayhawks
• Jessica Lea Mayfield
• Joe Purdy
• John Prine
• Jolie Holland
• Jonathan Wilson
• Justin Townes Earle
• Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch & Fats Kaplin
• Kris Kristofferson & Merle Haggard
• Kurt Vile & the Violators
• Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands
• The Low Anthem
• M. Ward
• MC Hammer
• Mekons
• Moonalice
• The Mother Hips
• Nell Robinson & Jim Nunally & Their All-Star Band
• Ollabelle
• Otis Clay with special guest Chick Rodgers
• Over the Rhine
• Patty Griffin
• PMW
• Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile
• Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys
• Reckless Kelly
• Ricky Skaggs
• River Whyless
• Robert Earl Keen
• Robert Plant & the Band of Joy
• Robyn Hitchcock
• Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses
• Seamus Kennedy
• Seldom Scene
• Simon Joyner
• South Memphis String Band
• Southern Culture on the Skids
• Steve Earle and the Dukes (and Duchesses) featuring Allison Moorer
• The Swanson Family Band
• The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore
• Those Darlins
• Thurston Moore
• Wendy Bird
• Woods

See you there? I’ll be the guy in the Brantley Gilbert T-shirt.

The Alan Jackson and Jamey Johnson collaborations are obvious slam dunks, but James Otto? Zac Brown Band? Don Henley? Tim McGraw? In the opinion of this longtime fan, it’s going to take some pretty careful song selection and arrangement to make those voices work together.

The full track list is below. After looking at it, how optimistic are you about the collection? Which tracks are you most/least looking forward to hearing?

1. “Everything and All” featuring Brad Paisley
2. “A Few Ole Country Boys” featuring Jamey Johnson
3. “Forever and Ever, Amen” featuring Zac Brown Band
4. “He Walked On Water” featuring Kenny Chesney
5. “T.I.M.E.” featuring Josh Turner
6. “Love Looks Good On You” featuring Kristin Chenoweth
7. “Better Class of Losers”/”She’s Got The Rhythm (And I Got The Blues)” medley feat. Alan Jackson
8. “More Life” featuring Don Henley
9. “Can’t Hurt A Man” featuring Tim McGraw
10. “Promises” featuring Shelby Lynne
11. “Is it Still Over?” featuring Carrie Underwood
12. “Road To Surrender” featuring Kris Kristofferson & Willie Nelson
13. “Diggin’ Up Bones” featuring John Anderson
14. “Someone You Never Knew” featuring Eamonn McCrystal
15. “Too Much” featuring James Otto
16. “Didn’t We Shine” featuring George Jones, Lorrie Morgan, Ray Price, Connie Smith, Joe Stampley & Gene Watson

Travis has a nice vault of old photos and videos opening (slowly) at http://www.randytravis.com.

Here’s a quick roundup of the acts and their ’90s counterparts.

Bradley Gaskin – “Mr. Bartender” (listen)
The best of early Travis Tritt. Call it “If I Were a Drinker 2.0.”

The Dirt Drifters – “Something Better” (listen)
Maybe I’m crazy, but I hear a lot of Confederate Railroad.

Jacob Lyda – “I’m Doing Alright” (listen)
In this song, he sounds a bit like a bunch of people–George Strait, Alan Jackson, Keith Whitley, Merle Haggard, Daryle Singletary–without really sounding like anyone. In “Loving Is Better Than Leaving” (still available as a free download), he reminds me of Dierks Bentley.

Kip Moore – “Mary Was the Marrying Kind” (listen)
Kevin Coyne correctly points to early Billy Ray Cyrus.

Jordan Carter – “Daddy Never Had a Chance in Hell” (listen)
Chris LeDoux, maybe? Not sure, but it’s straight-up ’90s for sure.

I know comparisons such as these can irk artists who prefer to think of themselves as absolute originals, but audible country influences are always a plus in my book. I hope these guys stay around long enough to reveal more of their distinct sounds and styles in future singles.

If I thought there was a chance of hearing stuff like this, I’d tune into my local country station more often.

Larry Cordle, writer of hits like “Highway 40 Blues,” “Murder on Music Row” and “Mama, Don’t Forget to Pray for Me”*—and impressive country/bluegrass singer in his own right—has a new album called Pud Marcum’s Hangin’ due on March 15.

Released on his own label, the album’s cast of Cordle originals is set to include “Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink,” widely touted as one of the standout tracks on Trace Adkins’ best album to date, and appearances by Del McCoury, Carl Jackson, Jerry Salley, Ronnie Bowman, Oak Ridge Boy Richard Sterban and Randy Kohrs, who also recorded and mixed it.

Basically, there’s no way this album is going to suck. In fact, if it’s half as good as 2007′s Took Down and Put Up, it’ll probably be in serious contention for some bluegrass lists come December.

Here’s “Jesus and Bartenders” with Larry Cordle & The Drunk Uncles to get you up to speed.

* “Murder on Music Row” and “Mama, Don’t Forget to Pray for Me” were both written with Larry Shell.

Ray Price, in fact, was one of the people who originally pricked my interest in Country music. That intense yet dignified voice on all those great old songs: City Lights was one of the most played records I ever owned. There isn’t much anybody can teach Ray Price about Country music.

And here he was singing a Kristofferson song. Kristofferson, you see, is a personification of part of the “new Nashville.” Some of the newer cats aren’t so well liked around Music City, what with their long hair and their drugs and their irreverent songs and their indifference to the pecking order. When the new breed writes, they aren’t apt to pull any punches. So you see what I mean about the generation gap. When you listen to this record you’ll have a hard time hearing it, though.

Because Ray Price is in his best form, bringing all that dignity, emotion, professionalism, and charm to bear on the work of Nashville’s most controversial child. The songs sound as if they were written for Ray. They take on a richness maybe even the songwriters didn’t guess they had. They get the full Price treatment: strings, chorus and all riding high, wide and handsome on a Nashville band. As the man says, if a formula is working, don’t mess with it.

Ironically, it’s the Kristofferson recordings of many of these songs that hold up better nearly 40 years later, unmarked by the dated ‘full Ray Price treatment’ of which Canaday seemed so enamored. In fact, listening to this record now, I get the impression that Price simply decided to lay into a random sampling of Kristofferson songs in hopes of repeating the success he’d just had with “For the Good Times,” without paying much attention to the particular content of any one piece. Just ‘Ray them up’ and see what happens, you know? Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t (e.g. an uptown take on “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” more choral than forlorn).

There’s a lesson here, about keeping personal prejudices in check or the difficulty of making historical judgments about what’s happening in the present or… something. Mostly, though, I just thought this was funny.

Elizabeth Cook at Hardly Strictly 2009.

Buddy Miller. Rosanne Cash. Earl Scruggs. Kelly Willis. The Flatlanders. Jerry Jeff Walker. Emmylou Harris. Justin Townes Earle and Steve Earle & the Dukes.

The best music festival you’ll ever attend is also the most affordable: just drive, fly or hitchhike your way to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for the 10th annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass on October 1-3 and you’ll get your choice of 80 or so top-notch roots-related acts on six different stages… for free.

The event is put on by billionaire investment banker and bluegrass nut Warren Hellman, who foots the bill every year as his gift to music fans in the city, or pretty much anyone else who cares to take him up on the offer.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating the announcement of this year’s line-up, and now most of the list is up at the event website. Here are the performers announced so far, with the ones I’m most excited about in bold.

Jonathan Richman, Buddy Miller, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Railroad Earth, Bonnie Prince Billy & the Cairo Gang, Carolyn Wonderland, Peter Himmelman, The Felice Brothers, Robert Earl Keen, Holly Golighty and the Brokeoffs, Fountains of Wayne, Nathaniel Rateliff, Umphrey’s McGee, Evie Ladin, Citigrass, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Kinky Friedman, Rosanne Cash, Lucero, Justin Townes Earle, Kelly Willis, Doc Watson & David Holt, The Band of Heathens, Anderson Family Bluegrass, Wendy Bird, Jenny & Johnny featuring Jenny Lewis & Johnathan Rice, Randy Newman, The Magnolia Sisters, Jon Langford, Martin Sexton, The Wronglers, Hot Tuna Electric, Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys, The Dukes of September Rhythm Revue featuring Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald & Boz Scaggs, David Olney & Sergio Webb, The Del McCoury Band, Hazel Dickens, Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women, Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Earl Scruggs, Gillian Welch, The Avett Brothers, Patty Griffin, Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes, Emmylou Harris, Nick Lowe, Indigo Girls, Patti Smith, The Ebony Hillbillies, Mondo Cane, The Flatlanders featuring Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock, Skip Gorman, Steve Earle and the Dukes, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, Blue Highway, James McMurtry, Yonder Mountain String Band, Kevin Welch, Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin, Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, Richard Thompson, Jackie Greene, Joan Baez, T Bone Burnett and Friends, David Grisman Quintet, Moonalice, the subdudes, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Keller & the Keels, Dry Branch Fire Squad

Pretty impressive, right? Still a couple months away, so book your hotels and such now. You know you want to see San Francisco sometime before you die anyway, so this is the time to do it.

Miss out if you must, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Another illustration: The thing that put me over the edge of picking up Jason Eady’s When the Money’s All Gone was when my friend Ken at That Nashville Sound described him as a “Hal Ketchum-like storyteller with a Joe Nichols voice,” and I thought “Wow, I like Ketchum’s storytelling and Nichols’ voice. I need to hear that.” Were those the best possible comparisons? Would Jason Eady agree with them? Eh, I don’t know. But they got me to check the album out, and I liked what I heard enough to put it on my year-end list, so I’m glad those were the comparisons Ken made.

So, you’ll note the addition of a “Recommended if you like” to the bottom of most ‘straight’ (versus humorous, not lesbian) album reviews from now on. In the case of the latest review, my hope is that fans of Hank III might be inspired to check out Hellbound Glory – but also that fans coming from Hellbound Glory’s Facebook page might be inspired to check out J.B. Beverley and the Wayward Drifters, and that fans of all of the above might get hooked on Oxyco… well, never mind that last one. But I think you get the point.

When I say that A sounds like B, I’m building a bridge that works both ways, and hopefully helping readers navigate their way around neighborhoods of music they’ll enjoy.

I think this will be an important project as far as putting our (collective) best foot forward and possibly convincing more people – new readers, ‘real media’ professionals, my mom – that there are actually some pretty cool things happening in our little inter-blog community. So, give it some thought and comment over there with your picks.

Thank you and goodnight.