“I’m not as snobby as what some people refer to as ‘grassholes’ – those who can’t stand anything outside of Ralph Stanley or Bill Monroe.” Amen, Robert Earl Keen. The same most certainly applies to the grass growers of OSMF, whose annual barbecue out at the Salt Lick in Dripping Springs achieves a musical alchemy akin to what bluegrass mainstay Tim O’Brien of Saturday marquee act Hot Rize cites in Los Lobos and Ry Cooder. “[They] synthesize [roots music] into something new. That’s what we were trying to do with bluegrass.” Done and done.

April 16-19, Salt Lick Pavilion & Camp Ben McCulloch, Dripping Springs. Full schedule and ticket details at www.oldsettlersmusicfest.org

This article appears in April 17 • 2015.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.