The line-up for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass has been announced, and, as is often the case, featured among the performers are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Emmylou Harris, Kronos Quartet, Robert Plant, Punch Brothers, Chris Thile, and Yola. The free, annual outdoor music festival returns for the nineteenth year to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, in the Hellman Hollow (named after the festival's late founder, Warren Hellman), and will take place October 4–6, 2019. You can hear songs from all these artists in the Spotify and Apple Music playlists below.

Emmylou Harris is a Hardly Strictly Bluegrass mainstay, having performed at each of the festival's eighteen previous iterations. Harris earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. Her most recent release is the five-album vinyl box set The Studio Albums, 1980–83, first released for Record Store Day earlier this year, comprising five classic titles on vinyl: Roses in the Snow, Evangeline, Cimarron, Last Date, and White Shoes.

Kronos Quartet makes its sophomore appearance at the festival with a special program titled Music for Change: Pete Seeger @ 100. The San Francisco–based quartet is joined by special guests Brian Carpenter, Lee Knight, Meklit, Aoife O’Donovan, and San Francisco Girls Chorus directed by Valérie Sainte-Agathe to celebrate the centenary and the legacy of the late, beloved singer-songwriter.

Robert Plant is back for his third Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, performing music from his albums Carry Fire, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, and more with his band The Sensational Space Shifters. The HSB set is the culmination of a three-week North American fall tour that beings with a set at the sold-out Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival in Alberta on September 13.

Punch Brothers return for their fourth performance at the festival to perform music from their 2018 Grammy Award–winning album All Ashore. "It's a meditation on committed relationships in the present day," says Chris Thile, "particularly in the present climate." The Boston Globe says it's "a deeply meaningful and downright gorgeous record."

Chris Thile, in addition to performing with his fellow Punch Brothers, brings his public radio show Live From Here back to Hellman Hollow for a live broadcast of the show with special guests Grace Potter and J.S. Ondara.

Yola makes her Hardly Strictly Bluegrass debut as part of Buddy Miller's Cavalcade of Stars. She begins a US tour as special guest of Kacey Musgraves at the Starlight Theatre in Kansas City tomorrow.

For more information on the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival and the complete list of this year's artists, visit hardlystrictlybluegrass.com.