Crowd erupts as 2 legends abandon setlist at San Francisco concert

Just two songs into Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ sold-out set at the Masonic on Wednesday, the mainstays of San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival declared an early demise in their show. “It’s already happened,” Welch deadpanned. “We chucked the setlist.” The auditorium swelled with applause as the audience inched forward in their seats with eager ears to hear what the Americana duo would play next. Rawlings, clutching his signature small archtop guitar, teased out the first few notes of “Empty Trainload of Sky,” which opens their latest album, “Woodland.” As he canvassed the fretboard with a dialed precision, dropping...