Today we are flying to San Francisco for tomorrow's performance  at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. The promoter Warren Hellman is a philanthropist, giving to all things good, as far as I can surmise. This year the festival will feature about one hundred acts in a huge meadow in the city’s Golden Gate Park - all a gift to the public.

We have the good fortune to be there the same day as Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. So we’re looking at probably the largest crowd concentration of the whole festival. I will finally get to hear their show. All summer I have heard great things about them but as yet haven’t crossed paths. It will be a strange but sweet moment. While I have  wonderful memories of  Robert with Zeppelin and nothing but admiration for Alison, I haven’t heard the record they made in it’s entirety so now this will be the first time for me to really hear what they’re up to. I’m happy she is out stretching her boundaries, something I’ve been adamant  about in my own career, and have constantly prodded her to do.